New Challenges, Old Faces
by ABeautifulDisaster92
Summary: Three girls become closer to Scott, Stiles, and Derek. But with a new alpha in town what will happen to the group? Will Derek's pack have to leave before the danger becomes to great? Or will the werewolf war rage on?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Familiar Faces, New Challenges

Scott McCall packed his backpack for the third time that morning. He was starting school after two weeks off for Spring Break. The whole time he had to balance work at the veterinary office and training with Derek Hale. This past semester had been one roller coaster for Scott, first he was bitten by a mysterious wolf, the girl of his dreams enter and leaves his life without a trace, and the new alpha had been busting his ass lately with training. And the most important change in his life, Scott was now a werewolf. It wasn't just in books or movies anymore for him, he was now a creature that could hurt, or even kill anyone without a second thought. Being able to control it had taken a toll on him and parts of his life. Scott still thought about Allison, when Derek's uncle, Peter was revealed to be the Alpha, the one who had bitten Scott, her family got scared and moved. They had told Derek that they were going to keep an eye on Beacon Hills but were staying away for their daughter's safety. Scott had no idea where they went but he knew as long as Allison was safe he would be ok. It still killed him to think about her but it was time to move on, old wounds were healing.

He heard a horn honk from the front of his house. It must have been his best friend Stiles. Stiles Stilinski had been there for Scott through the entire werewolf ordeal. Grabbing his backpack he ran down the stairs to Stiles' beat up Jeep. "Hey," He sighed climbing into the car.

"Hey, ready for this?" Stiles asked turning the key in the ignition.

"You mean school without Allison? I don't know," He groaned. "Do you think she'll ever come back?"

"Honestly I doubt it, Scott. I know you loved her but I think her family did what was best." Stiles said hoping he wouldn't piss off his friend.

Scott slowly nodded, finally hearing Stiles, he had a habit of tuning him out if he didn't say anything he didn't want to hear. "How are you doing with the whole Lydia thing?"

Stiles always had a crush on Lydia Martin, the school's most popular girl on all accounts. Over the holiday she had gotten back together with her boyfriend Jackson Whittemore, so now the school's power couple was back on. "I'm fine, I kind of expected it." Stiles sighed gripping the wheel tighter.

It was a short ride to the school and before they knew it Stiles was pulling into his familiar parking spot. A couple spots over three girls were climbing out of a silver Honda civic. Michelle popped the trunk to pull her gym bag out of the mass of clothes she still hadn't taken out of her car. "Michelle, you ever going to clean your car?" Lynne asked slamming the passenger door.

"Sure, when cross country is over and I actually have a life." Michelle answered slinging the strap on her shoulder.

Taylor laughed fixing her blonde hair in a side braid. "You said the same thing earlier only it was 'during Spring break.'"

"I was busy!" Michelle defended shutting the trunk. "Do you guys need a ride home after school?"

"Well, not home, but can you give me a ride to the vet's office?" Lynne asked running her hands through her dark brown hair. "I need some extra cash and my mom told me they were hiring."

"Sure, what about you Tay?"

"I don't know yet, it depends on if I have to tutor anyone. Mrs. Shaw hasn't told me anything yet." Taylor explained walking with her friends up the sidewalk to the front door.

Scott and Stiles walked behind the girls, knowing exactly who they were. They had been in the same grade since kindergarten. Scott noticed something fall to the ground. It was a bracelet with an 'L' in one of the charms. "Hey, Lynne." He called causing the girl to turn around along with the two other girls with her.

"Hey, Scott, what's up?" She asked her dark hair blowing out of her face.

"You dropped this." He said holding the bracelet out to her.

"Thanks," She smiled. "That's why, the clasp broke. Hey you work at the veterinary office right?"

"Yeah, why do you ask?" Scott asked as Stiles walked up beside him.

"Well I was wondering if you could put in a good word for me. I need a job."

"All right, I can do that." Scott smirked.

"Thanks," Lynne smiled again as the girls turned to walk into the high school.

"And when he bounces back, he bounces back fast." Stiles chuckled putting his hands in his pockets.

"What?"

"Hate to break this to you, but Lynne does somehow resemble Allison."

"What? No she doesn't, they just have the same hair color."

"Uh huh," Stile sighed walking ahead of his friend.

"Wait, Stiles do you really think that?" Scott exclaimed running after his friend.

During first period Stiles was called down to the principal's office. Knocking on the door he noticed the back of a blonde head in one of the leather chairs in front of Principal Vaughn. "Oh, Mr. Stilinski, please come in, have a seat." He smiled directing Stiles to the other leather chair beside Taylor. "Stiles, you know Taylor Evers, right?"

"Uh yeah, we had Home Economics together last year." Stiles stuttered remembering Taylor had been the only one not to laugh at him when he almost caught a kitchen on fire.

"Yes, well due to some teacher's concerns we thought it would be best if you were in the tutoring program this year."

"What? But I..." Stiles stammered.

"I know you're a smart kid, Stiles, but I just thought maybe Taylor can help you concentrate. Its just precautionary, just in case your grades really slip."

Stiles nodded looking over at Taylor who gave him a small smile. When they were able to leave Stiles walked behind her. "Look, I know you don't want.." She sighed.

"No, its cool, I'll see you later." He mumbled walking back to his class.

Taylor frowned, this definitely wasn't going to be an easy semester. When she got back to her class Michelle gave her a weird look. When they had about ten minutes left in class their teacher told them to talk amongst themselves but not get too loud. "What was that about?" Michelle asked.

Taylor sighed putting her pen in her purse. "I got my next tutoring assignment."

"What's so bad about that?"

"It's Stiles, and he does not seem to happy about it."

"What? I thought Stiles was smart."

Taylor nodded her head. "He is, apparently he just has some small problems concentrating. If I can help him with that this will be easy."

Michelle nodded closing her textbook. They waited for the bell to ring before heading to their lockers. Lynne stood there waiting on them, their next period was gym. "So, I think someone has their eye on Scott McCall." Taylor smirked seeing Lynne blush slightly.

"What? Nah, he was too into that new girl." She sighed as they walked to the gymnasium.

"Yeah, but she moved and he probably is really tore up about it and needs a shoulder to cry on." Michelle laughed bumping into Lynne with her hip.

"One, I don't see Scott as a crying guy, and two if we do work together we will probably become just friends, nothing more."

"You don't know that for sure," Taylor smiled as they opened the door into the girls locker room.

Scott found Stiles at his locker, "Hey, can you give me a ride to work after school?"

"Uh, probably not, I have to meet my tutor for a session." Stiles muttered opening his locker door.

"What? Since when do you need a tutor?"

"Since Vaughn thought it would be a good idea for me. Apparently I have issues concentrating."

Scott raised his eyebrows. "It took him this long to figure that out?"

Stiles shot a glare Scott's way, "Ok, you can walk your werewolf ass to work." He said shutting his locker.

"Hey, wait, Stiles." Scott called running after his best friend for the second time that day.

During gym class Coach Simpson called Michelle into her office. "Hey, coach, you wanted to see me?" Michelle asked.

"Yes, I wanted to ask you about your training over break?" Simpson asked leaning on her desk.

"Oh, I ran every day, and I found a new trail the other day I'm gonna run on today after school."

"Ok, just don't push it too much, the last thing we need is for you to tear an ACL, understand?"

"Totally," Michelle nodded walking out the office to see her friends walking behind the bleachers. "What are you guys doing?"

"Avoiding dodgeball." Lynne whispered stepping behind the bleachers.

"Why? I love dodgeball."

"Last time I played I got hit in the face by the quarterback of the football team." Taylor snapped. "I had a circle imprint on my face the rest of the day."

Michelle laughed but heard Lynne gasp. "What is it?"

"Look at this." She said waving her hands to get her friends to come towards her.

Taylor and Michelle narrowed their eyes to see what their friend was looking at. "What are we supposed to be looking at?" Taylor asked.

"The floor's stained, like something was spilled here." Lynne said barely able to see the large dark place in the gym's wooden floor.

"Lynne, its probably just the floor rotting or something, come on we can't avoid class forever." Michelle sighed grabbing Taylor's arm.

"What if it's blood?" Lynne exclaimed.

"Its not blood, now come on."

After school Taylor sat at a round table in the school's library, she kept checking her watch. With every passing minute her thoughts that Stiles wasn't showing up became stronger. Finally he ran through the library doors. "Hey," He sighed trying to catch his breath. "Sorry, I had to do something."

"Have you taken Ateral?" Taylor asked.

Stiles looked around taking a seat beside her. "Maybe."

He smiled when he heard her laugh. "Ok, let me see your homework."

Lynne followed Scott through the front door to the vet's office. She heard Scott call for the vet in the back of the building. "Oh, Scott, you're actually on time." He chuckled. "Hello, who's this?"

"This is Lynne, she goes to my school." Scott explained. "She's here to interview for the new position."

He nodded his head. "Ok, come into my office, I just need to ask you a few questions."

Lynne sent Scott a small smile before following him to the small office. She took a seat on one of the black chairs. "So tell me about yourself." He said taking a seat at his desk.

"Um, I'm a junior, I'm an Honor student, I'm always on time. I'm really good with animals."

"Well that's a good thing to have when you're working at a veterinary office." He chuckled.

Lynne blushed. "So what job exactly am I applying for?"

He stood from his chair to walk around in front of her. "We're opening a dog grooming section here, I need someone to help out the main groomer, you'll be in charge of shampooing, drying, that sort of thing. Do you think you can handle it?"

"For sure, I'm your girl." Lynne smiled.

"All right, Sheila should be here in a little while, then you two will get started." He explained. "In the mean time you can go help Scott feed the animals."

"Ok, thank you so much." Lynne said standing up from her chair walking out of the office.

She found Scott dragging a big bag of cat food. Lynne chuckled. "Need a hand?"

"Maybe, you might have to feed the cats for me." He sighed.

"Why? You allergic?" She asked grabbing one side of the bag.

"Not exactly."

Leaves crunched under Michelle's feet as she ran through the woods. Somehow she had gotten off the dirt path and was now just free running in a part of the woods she had never been before. When her, Taylor, and Lynne were little they would venture off in the woods all the time. Exploring, building forts, but they always stayed close to one of their houses. This time she had no idea where she was, and it was freaking her out. Stopping she took out one of her ear buds. Looking around all she saw was trees. She put her Ipod on pause to be able to hear everything around her. A few crows cawed, some twigs snapping but other than that it was silent. "This is great." She whispered fixing her curly hair into a ponytail.

Walking a few feet she saw something black up ahead. Heading closer she saw it was a car, a very nice car parked in front of the remains of a huge house. She knew exactly where she was, this was the Hale property. A couple months ago she heard through the grapevine that Derek Hale was back, and soon after he was accused of killing people, there was a massive manhunt for weeks. He disappeared soon after. Then Sheriff Stilinski released a statement that due to lack of evidence Derek was off the hook to the attacks. No one had seen Derek return to town but apparently he snuck back sometime because Michelle heard the door squeak open. "What are you doing here?" A booming voice yelled at Michelle causing her to jump.

"Oh, I, um." She stuttered suddenly regretting leaving her pepper spray in her car. "I was running and I got lost."

She saw a tall man step through the front door of the house. Even though she had been told he was a killer she thought he was cute. Dark onyx hair perfectly spiked, a muscular build she could tell from under his black shirt. "Well you can see yourself off, don't come back." He growled, his mysterious eyes sending chills down Michelle's spine.

"Um, I have no idea where I am. Can you just tell me how to find my way back to the running trail?"

Derek shook his head. "You're a long way's away from the trail, by the time you find it it'll be pitch black."

"Then can you...?" She stopped mid sentence knowing going with him wasn't a good idea.

"I'll give you a ride, but after that you better not come back."

"You got it." Michelle coughed raising her hands walking to the black Camaro.

It was dead silent in the car. Michelle had never been good with awkward silences, they made her fidget. "So, um," She mumbled. "Nice car."

She looked at Derek, his jaw was tight, his eyes focused on the road. Knowing she probably wasn't going to get a response she shut up. "Where do you need to go?" He asked surprising her.

"Um, a couple miles away from the school. I parked my car there."

She saw him nod slightly before turning down a road leading up to the school. The rest of the ride was quiet. When Derek parked his car next to her Honda she silently unbuckled her seatbelt. "Thank you, you know, for the ride." She muttered giving him a small smile.

Earning no response she opened the door. As soon as she closed it the Camaro sped off leaving Michelle in the dust. Shaking her head she walked to her car, she didn't have any calls or texts from Taylor about a ride so she put the car into drive and headed home.

Stiles kept looking up from his textbook to Taylor. Her dark blonde hair was pushed back, her head leaned to one side. Maybe it was because they hadn't spent that much time together or he hadn't paid much attention but he thought she was beautiful. She definitely wasn't the shy girl he had class with the previous year. "So how are you doing with your problems?" She asked snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, I," He stuttered. "This sucks."

Taylor chuckled. "I know Algebra's not that fun..."

"No, its not that, it sucks that everyone seems to think I really need tutoring. I don't."

She sighed looking down at her notebook. "Then why did Coach Finstock say you would do well in tutoring?"

Stiles scoffed. "Look, its not that I don't get the work, its just if something doesn't catch my interest I just don't care about it."

"That's understandable, so why don't you just trick your brain into thinking your school work is something interesting?"

He shot her a weird look. "You can do that?"

Taylor smiled before showing Stiles some ways to create interest in homework. Back at the vet's office Lynne laughed at Scott who was trying to grab kittens out of their cage against their mother's wishes. "Come on, the vet needs to check them out." He said earning another swat from the mother cat.

"Here, let me help." Lynne smiled gently pushing him aside. "Hi, mom," She whispered reaching out to pet the mother's head, while she was distracted Lynne picked up one of the black kittens handing it to Scott. Three kittens later Lynne shut the cage door holding the last kitten in her hand. "See, that wasn't so hard." She mewed scratching the tiny kitten's head.

Scott chuckled slightly placing the kittens in a small cardboard box. "Yeah, yeah, you're handling cats from now on."

"Nope, I'm working in the grooming department, I was just told to help you with feeding. And you really needed my help. I've never seen someone so freaked out over cats before."

"I can't help they don't like me." Scott defended carrying the box into the examining room.

"Scott, that took longer than I expected," The vet chuckled grabbing the box from Scott's hands.

"Yeah, he had a little trouble with the mama cat." Lynne laughed crossing her arms. "How are your hands? She scratched you up a couple times."

"Oh, uh, they're fine." He mumbled holding out his hands. Lynne's eyes widened seeing no scratches or blood on Scott's hands, it looked like nothing had touched him.

"How did...?"

"Oh, look, Sheila's here." The vet coughed interrupting Lynne. "You can go ask if she needs any help."

"Um, ok, I'll see you guys later." Lynne muttered walking over to a red headed woman entering the building. "Hi, I'm Lynne, your new assistant."

"Oh, nice to meet you honey," Sheila smiled taking Lynne's hand. "Come on, I think we better get started."

Taylor sighed, looking at her phone she had been trying to reach Michelle for the past fifteen minutes. She needed a ride home after the tutoring session. "No answer?" Stiles asked snapping her out of her thoughts.

"No, she's probably out running." She sighed putting her phone back in her bag.

Stiles shut his textbooks. "I-I can give you a ride, if you like."

"Really?"

"Yeah, its no problem, I mean, I can help my tutor who's helping me." Stiles laughed scrunching his eyebrows hoping that sentence made sense.

Taylor smiled putting her notebook and textbooks in her backpack. "Ok, I'll take you up on that offer."

The two walked outside to Stiles' Jeep. She saw huge dents in the passenger side door. "What happened?"

Stiles head shot up. "Uh, you know, its just taken some abuse over the past couple months." He chuckled opening the drivers' side door.

Thinking nothing of it Taylor climbed into the Jeep. After telling him how to get to her house the car was silent. Stiles looked out his window. "So, uh, you and your friends, you guys have been friends for a long time."

"Yeah," She smiled. "About as long as you and Scott have."

Stiles chuckled. "Yeah, we've definitely been through it."

"Like what?"

Stiles eyes widened. "Oh, you know, just guy stuff." He mumbled hoping she would let the subject go.

Lynne grabbed her navy blue sweater on a hook in front of the office. She now smelled like a bunch of wet dogs, her hair was a mess, and she was pretty sure she sat in a puddle of water before leaving the grooming station. "Hey," Scott called. "How was your first day?"

She shot him an evil look, her hair falling in front of her face. "Does it look like it went well?"

Scott chuckled gently moving her hair to the side. "It'll get better."

"Not if Ms. Johnson brings her Great Dane in every week."

Scott shifted nervously. "Uh, do you want to walk home together?"

Finally he saw Lynne smile. "Yeah, I would like that."

The two walked home talking about school, work, but there was one subject Lynne was afraid to bring up; Scott's ex-girlfriend Allison. Lynne's house was close to the veterinary office, Scott walked her up to the front door. "So, tomorrow? Same time, same place?" Scott asked putting his hands in his pockets.

"Same building," Lynne smiled finding her house keys in her purse.

"Bye, Lynne."

"See ya." She said opening the front door. Inside she watched Scott walk down the sidewalk Lynne smiled to herself, thinking he did get cute over the years.

Stiles pulled the Jeep into Taylor's driveway. When he shut off the engine Taylor smiled at him. "Thank you, um, I know tutoring isn't the most fun thing in the world..."

"Don't worry about it, I actually liked our session, it wasn't what I thought it would be." Stiles smirked.

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow, don't be late."

"Yes ma'am." He laughed as she slammed the passenger door. He watched her walk up to the front door before starting the car again. After she was inside he put the Jeep into drive and headed to his house.

Taylor sighed throwing her bag onto her bed. Walking over to her desk she turned her MacBook on. Taking a seat she logged onto her ooVoo account, she noticed Lynne and Michelle were already signed in. Calling both of them they started their video conference. "Hey, how did you get home?" Michelle asked.

"Stiles gave me a ride." Taylor answered.

"Oh...ohh you and Mr. Stilinski," Lynne smirked wiggling her eyebrows.

"Shut up, this is purely professional."

"Oh come on, you can still like him, plus the Spring Carnival is coming up, maybe you two can go together."

"Sure, uh huh, so Michelle how was your run?"

"Uh, it was good, I'm kinda scared to tell you guys what happened though?"

"You were attacked by a bear?" Lynne exclaimed almost spilling her strawberry milkshake.

"Yes, yes I was, you two are video chatting with my ghost." Michelle laughed rubbing her forehead.

"Hey, its possible, just as long as your ghost is like Casper."

"Oh boy," Taylor sighed. "Tell us what happened."

Michelle looked down at her hands. "Well, I kind of got lost on this new trail and I ended up on the Hale property."

"Hale? As in the family that got barbecued in that fire years ago?" Taylor asked staring at her friend.

"Not in so many words, but yes." Michelle said. "Derek was there, he gave me a ride to my car but he's not the most talkative person."

"I thought he left town a couple months ago."

"I thought so too, but he's back and he's actually living in that house."

"Damn, talk about needing home improvements. That house was completely torched. How can he live there?" Lynne asked.

"I have no idea, but maybe I can find out." Michelle smirked thinking of some ways to get Derek to be a more social person.

That night Jackson Whittemore was practicing, even though lacrosse season was over he wanted to be in perfect condition. In frustration he threw his stick across the field. "What the hell?" He whispered after it was thrown back at him, in pieces. "Oh my God," He yelled trying to run away after seeing two red eyes staring at him from across the field but he wasn't fast enough.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Suspicions

The next day at school Lynne was standing at her locker when she heard someone say Jackson's name. Everyone knew who Jackson Whittemore was, he was the co-captain of the lacrosse team along with Scott. She had seen him play in a couple games, and had a few classes with him that semester. They had barely talked but she knew his face. Lynne stepped closer to them to hear what was being said. "Yeah, no one has any idea where he is." Robin told her friend Jen.

"Really?" Jen asked. "How's Lydia?"

"She's not at school today if that tells you anything."

Lynne's eyes widened. She had heard the story of Jackson being attacked by a mountain lion last semester, apparently Lydia witnessed it and was in almost like a state of shock for days. She saw Taylor and Michelle walking towards her. "Hey, did you guys hear about Jackson?" She whispered.

"No, why?" Taylor asked.

"He's gone, no one's seen him since last night."

Michelle laughed slightly. "Lynne, this is Jackson, he probably was at a party and is too hung over to come to school. No biggie."

"Then why is Lydia not at school?"

"Maybe she ditched to go shopping." Taylor scoffed, she had never been Lydia's biggest fan.

Stiles ran over to Scott in first period. "Dude, Jackson's gone."

"I know," He sighed looking at his phone. "Derek just texted me, he thinks another werewolf is here."

"Another werewolf? How does he know?"

"He smelled something last night, and whatever it was it seemed powerful." Scott explained looking at the text over and over again.

"How does he know its powerful? I mean maybe his weird werewolf senses are just out of whack."

"Stiles, Jackson always wanted to be a werewolf and it pissed him off when Derek didn't give him what he wanted after the formal. If another werewolf is here Jackson would be the first in line to get the bite." He said thinking back on this previous semester. Jackson had been relentless about wanting the bite so he could be at the performance level Scott was on. He knew there were many ideas as to why Jackson disappeared but him meeting another alpha was at the top of his list.

"Ok, that may be true but we're getting ahead of ourselves, we're not for sure Jackson was bitten yet."

"We're going to have to find out after school."

"I was going to see Lydia after school, everyone's saying how she's not here today."

Scott gave Stiles a weird look. "I thought you were done with her."

"I may not like her anymore but that doesn't mean I can't care about her." Stiles sighed turning around in his seat.

During Lynne's Current Events class her teacher had assigned partners for their upcoming project. They had to write a full page report on two Entertainment stories, two World News stories, and two U.S.A stories. They had a week to finish it and turn it in or they would have points counted off for each day its late. "Ok, you'll find a list on the back wall and that person is your partner." Mr. Taylor explained. "This row go look at who your partner is." Lynne stood up with the rest of her row to walk to the back of the room.

Towards the end of the list she saw her name. Her partner was none other than Scott McCall. Walking back to her desk she tried to get Scott's attention. When he finally looked at her she mouthed 'We're partners.' He smiled at her before Mr. Taylor told the next row to go look at the list.

After school Taylor sighed checking her watch, Stiles was supposed to meet her an hour ago. Checking her phone again she had no messages or calls. 'Where the hell is he?' She thought checking over her homework for the second time.

Stiles walked into Lydia's room. She was exactly how he found her last time something like this happened. On her bed, in a blue nightgown, looking at him with that seductive look in her eye. "Uh, hey, Lydia." He mumbled. "I-I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"I am fine," She sighed looking at her nails. "You can go now."

Stiles shook his head. "Ok, I know I'm not in the same circle you are but you can at least give me some credit for coming to see you. I just wanted to make sure you're ok."

"Well you did that, so now you may leave."

With a scoff, Stiles scratched his head. "Fine, forget I even came over."

Slamming the front door Stiles walked back to his Jeep. Starting it up he picked up his phone and immediately remembered he was supposed to have a session with Taylor. "Oh my God, she's gonna kill me." He sighed leaning on the steering wheel.

Lynne was brushing out a golden retriever when Scott walked in. "Hey, what's up?" He asked sitting on a stool in front of her.

"Nothing much, just making sure Lola here looks beautiful for her mommy when she comes to pick her up." Lynne giggled earning a kiss from Lola.

Scott laughed. "Well I actually wanted to ask you something."

"Shoot."

"So I was wondering if you wanted to come to my house after work and start our project."

"Oh, ok, that'll work. I have my laptop in my bag, we can go to my house tomorrow if we don't finish tonight."

"All right, well I gotta get back before I get yelled at." Scott laughed waving at her leaving the room.

Lynne smiled. "He's cute right?" She asked Lola who just looked at her but Lynne knew she agreed.

Michelle parked her car a mile away from the Hale's house. She had decided that Derek's house needed some help, especially if he was going to be living there. So she thought she could ask him how he felt about both of them doing some home-improvements. Being very cautious she walked towards the house. The wind blowing her light brown hair that she woke up early that morning to straighten. She applied a little bit of makeup in her car, she didn't want to look like a zombie when she talked to Derek. Taking a deep breath she walked up the steps, taking another she hesitantly knocked on the door. Receiving no answer she walked to one of the windows to peak inside. Again nothing.

"What are you doing here?" She heard coming from behind her.

She saw Derek standing at the other end of the porch, he had his eyes narrowed at her. Michelle laughed nervously. "There you are."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Oh, I uh, I wanted to ask you something."

Derek nodded at her telling her to continue. "I wanted to know how you felt about us maybe fixing up your house."

"Why do you even care?" He asked walking towards her.

"Consider it me returning the favor, about the ride yesterday." Knowing he wasn't buying the story she sighed. "Look I just feel bad ok? You live here and it looks like this house can fall apart at any time, so come on, we get some paint, a hammer and nails, and actually make this place look like a home."

Derek narrowed his eyes. "It used to be a home. You can leave." He whispered walking into the house, slamming the door.

Michelle ran over to the door, pounding on it. "Derek, come on, I'm sorry. I know what happened to your family and I'm sorry. I-I just want to help." Receiving no answer Michelle sighed and walked away, not knowing that Derek was watching her walk away from his house.

Taylor was laying on her couch when she heard a knocking at her front door. Sighing to herself she threw the remote onto the coffee table before heading to the door. She saw a glimpse of a plaid shirt in the stained glass window of her door. Opening it she put a hand on her hip waiting for an excuse. "Hi." Was all she said.

"Hey, look I know we had a session today but I just really, really needed to help a friend. I swear."

Taylor nodded. "You could have at least texted me, I waited at the library for over an hour."

"I know, I feel like an ass, but I'll make it up to you."

"How?" She asked gesturing him to come inside.

"The spring carnival is coming up, I was wondering if you wanted to go, I'll buy you a funnel cake and as many tickets for rides as you want."

He saw her lips twitch. "Is that a smile? I know that's a smile, come on, let me see it." He said gently poking her sides to get her to smile.

"Ok, its a deal, you're lucky I like funnel cakes." She laughed.

"Everyone likes funnel cakes, ok I'll pick you up at six. So its a date?"

"Its a date." She smiled as he walked back towards the door. "But you still have a tutoring session tomorrow and you better not be late."

"I was hoping you would forget, but ok I will be there. I promise."

"Wait, we can't be in the library tomorrow. Mr. Keith told me he has to leave early tomorrow so the library will be locked."

"Oh well, how about my house? My dad's not there most of the time so it'll be pretty quiet."

"Ok, your house it is, I'll meet you at your car after school." Taylor smiled.

"All right, I'll see you then." Stiles said heading out the door. "See ya." He smirked accidently bumping into the door frame.

Taylor giggled. "Bye Stiles."

Just as Stiles was leaving her house she saw a silver Honda Civic pull in the driveway. Michelle got out of her car looking completely bummed out. "What's wrong?"

"I just completely crashed and burned in front of Derek." Michelle sighed walking up the steps.

Taylor gave her a confused look. "Wait, are you trying to get together with Derek Hale? The very same guy that just a couple months ago the whole town thought was a murderous psychopath?"

"Yep, that's the one." She whispered crashing out on Taylor's couch.

"Are you crazy?" Taylor exclaimed.

"Look, I know he doesn't have the best reputation but come on, the guy lost pretty much his entire family, you can't blame him for being a little cold."

"Michelle, there's a difference in being a little cold and completely crazy."

"Ok, I don't think he's crazy, he's just misunderstood."

"Ok, if you say so." Taylor sighed walking into the kitchen to grab the cookie dough.

After work that day Lynne and Scott had continued their tradition of walking home together, only this time they were both heading to Scott's house. They laughed about a dog booking it towards the exit when the vet pulled out a needle. Scott realized this was the first time he had really laughed since Allison left. Lynne was so carefree and bubbly it made him feel...good again. When they reached his house they got on their laptops to start on their project. Lynne decided to take the World News while Scott did U.S.A, they figured they could each take one Entertainment story. "So, how are you doing?" She asked scribbling down a few notes.

"Pretty good, I'm pretty much using the first couple stories Google gives me." He chuckled. "You?"

"Pretty good, I mean natural disasters are a big story right now, they should be easy to write about."

Hearing a phone beep she looked up from her notes. Lynne noticed Scott's eyebrows furrow. "Everything ok?" She asked.

"Uh, yeah, I know we just started but I might have to leave soon."

"What? But we barely got any work done."

"I know, I'm sorry, its just I'm needed for something. We can work on it tomorrow, I promise no interruptions."

"Ok, I'll just see myself out." She mumbled packing up her bag.

As Lynne walked home she kept feeling something was watching her. Looking back she saw nothing but it still creeped her out. She almost broke out into a full sprint the feeling was so strong. When she got home she texted her friends telling them she would get on ooVoo later, that she had to finish up her homework. Across town Scott and Stiles pulled up to Derek's house, they saw him waiting for them at the front porch. "What's up?" Scott asked as they got out of the Jeep.

"Something's not right," Derek said as they walked through the front door of his house. "I got this feeling when my sister was killed."

"Ok, what does that mean?" Stiles asked.

"Last time, it meant there was a new alpha."

Scott shook his head. "Ok, so can it mean the same thing? I mean you're the alpha now."

"Of this pack, yes. It could mean there's a new alpha, and he doesn't have a pack and he is trying to find one."

"Are you sure?"

"No, but at the moment I have to believe that's our best bet. So I'm telling both of you now, you can't trust anyone. The new pack members could be anyone."

"That's something we wanted to talk to you about." Scott sighed. "Jackson's missing, he wasn't at school today."

Derek narrowed his eyes thinking about Jackson. He had wanted the bite and would have done anything to get it. But for Derek, having him in his pack meant trouble, especially because Jackson didn't want to be in a pack for the brotherhood, he wanted the bite because of the physical abilities that came with it. "That doesn't mean anything right now. He could be a new beta but we have no way of knowing for sure."

"So how will we find out?" Stiles asked.

"We have to wait, for either a full moon or when they can't control the change. If he's a new werewolf he won't be able to control it."

"Ok, so we wait, we can do that." Stiles nodded.

"I'm serious you two, I don't care who it is, the new betas could be anyone."

"Wait, if we know about them, do they know about us?" Scott asked.

"More than likely, and that's probably why they're here." Derek sighed. "They may want to take over this territory."

"Why?"

"I don't know yet, they could just have something against our pack. Whatever the reason may be we have to be careful. Understand?"

Scott and Stiles nodded. "Wait, why do I have to be careful?" Stiles asked.

"Because you know about us, you know I'm the alpha and Scotts a beta, the more you know the more they want to destroy you, you're in the same situation we're in."

"Oh, all right, that makes sense." Stiles muttered.

Derek nodded. "Ok, from now on we keep a low profile. Got it?"

"We got it, from now on we'll be invisible." Scott said raising his hands.

During the ride home, Scott thought of something. "What if Lynne and Taylor were the new betas?"

"What?" Stiles exclaimed. "How could that be possible? I mean we've known them for how long?"

"Exactly, we've been in the same grade with them for years and just now we're starting to hang out with them."

Stiles thought about it for a second. "Wait, Taylor was assigned to be my tutor."

"I don't know, maybe she asked specifically to tutor you. I mean, you have to think its a possibility."

Stiles didn't want to believe it but it was definitely possible. As much as he didn't like to admit it, Derek was right, he couldn't trust anyone. Maybe Taylor wanted to find out how much he knows about Scott and Derek. "Dammit," He whispered. "I made a date with Taylor for Friday."

"Well you're going to have to cancel it, just like I'm going to have to figure out something about hanging out with Lynne to finish our school project."

"We're screwed."

"Yep."

After Michelle left Taylor headed upstairs to take a shower before her and her friends had their ooVoo chat. When she came back into her bedroom she saw she had a missed call from Stiles. After changing into a pair of black pajama pants and a white tank top she called him back. While she waited for him to pick up she ran a brush through her wet hair. After three rings he picked up. "Hey, did you call me?" She asked.

"Yeah, uh, I have bad news." He sighed she could tell from just listening to him on the phone he was pacing.

"What's wrong?"

"I can't go to the carnival on Friday." He said above a whisper, Taylor barely heard him.

"What? Why?"

"Something came up with my dad, I have to stay home with him. I'm really sorry."

Stiles felt awful for lying to her. "Oh, well if you have to stay with your dad I understand. Um, I'll still see you for our tutoring session tomorrow, right?"

He knew he couldn't get out of the session since he had missed their other one. "Yeah, uh, I'll see you then."

"Ok, well I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, bye." He said quickly hanging up.

"Dude! We're supposed to be avoiding them, not hanging out with them!" Scott exclaimed.

"I know! But she's my tutor, I can't exactly avoid her!"

"Fine, but it has to be strictly about school."

"I know, Scott, trust me I don't want my throat slashed ok?"

Next was Scott he had to tell Lynne that he would finish his part of the project himself without being with her. "Scott, I don't understand why you're being like this. I mean, its a project we have to do together."

"I know, but I just don't have the time to hang out. I'm sorry." He sighed running a hand through his dark hair.

"Ok, fine, if you don't like me that much, fine you won't have to deal with me." Lynne snapped quickly hanging up on him.

Throwing her phone to the side she logged onto ooVoo. Taylor and Michelle were already signed in. "I'm so pissed right now, you have no idea." She noticed Taylor looked sort of down. "Tay, what's wrong?"

"Huh?" She gasped breaking her out of her thoughts. "Oh, nothing, just thinking. Why are you so pissed?"

"Apparently, I disgust Scott so much he doesn't even want to work on our project in the same room as me."

"What? I thought you two got along great." Michelle said raising an eyebrow.

"I did too, I mean we were working fine together today until he had to leave suddenly. Then he just called me to say he would do his part, I do mine and we just put them both together when we have to turn it in."

"That's sort of douchey." Michelle sighed thinking back to how Derek shut her remodeling idea down so fast.

"I know, but its whatever if he wants to live in his own misery about Allison go ahead. It doesn't bother me."

"Yes it does, if it didn't you wouldn't be so mad right now." Taylor interjected.

"I'm mad because he doesn't want to work with me, not because I like him."

"So you admit you like him." Michelle smirked.

Lynne blushed looking around. "Shut up."

Taylor and Michelle both smiled. "She finally admits it."

"So what? He's made it obvious he doesn't feel the same way so I guess I just have to move on."

Taylor sighed. "Yeah, same here."

"What?" Lynne asked.

"I guess I can't exactly hide it from you two." She mumbled. "I made a date with Stiles for the Spring Carnival, but he called right before I got on here to cancel it."

"What happened to 'professional relationship?'" Michelle asked using air quotes.

"I don't know, I just thought..." She stammered. "I don't know, but it doesn't even matter now. We're done before we even started."

"You're still tutoring him right?"

"Yeah, unless I ask for someone else to take over, but I've never done that before, and I really don't want to."

The next day at school Lynne refused to look at Scott during their Current Events class. Even when they were in the library to do research. Scott still felt bad but there was no way of knowing if he could trust her. Plus he didn't want to put her in danger. When the bell rang Lynne quickly packed up her stuff and left him in the dust. Stiles found him walking in the hallway. "So how's the whole avoiding thing going?" He asked.

"It sucks, but until we know who the betas are I have no way of knowing who she really is."

"Yeah I know what you mean, but somehow I still find it hard believe two pretty girls like them are evil, killer werewolves."

"Thanks Stiles."

"You know what I mean, it just doesn't seem likely. But I guess that's what the alpha wants, expect the unexpected."

"Exactly." Scott coughed. "So how are you going to do during your tutoring session with Taylor?"

"Honestly, I have no idea, I like her. I mean, she's a great girl, it sucks it has to be like this."

"I know, man, trust me."

Stiles wasn't looking forward to this tutoring session. He liked Taylor and everything, he just didn't like this avoiding her thing, and he had a feeling he wasn't going to be good at it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: New Plan of Action

When Stiles woke up the next morning he kept thinking about the betas, who they may be. If the girls were the new werewolves when would they strike? While he was brushing his teeth he got to thinking, the Spring Carnival was that Friday there was also a full moon that night. Quickly spitting he ran to get dressed, he had to talk to Scott. Scott had just woken up when he heard someone burst through his bedroom door. "Stiles what the hell are you doing?" He exclaimed.

"I got to thinking, remember what Derek said, about the full moon?"

"Yeah, uh, the new betas won't be able to control their change that night."

"Exactly, there's a full moon this Friday night."

Scott gave his friend a weird look. "What are you getting at, Stiles?"

"The girls, if we follow them or see them on the full moon, if they don't change, then what's stopping us from hanging out with them?"

Scott nodded his head. "Well, even if they don't change there's still a chance the other pack could use them against us. I don't want to put anyone in danger."

"I understand that, but it they aren't the new werewolves that means we can at least talk to them and be friendly, instead of avoiding them like the plague."

"What about Derek?"

"What about him? Look, Scott, if we do get close to them we can find ways to protect them, I mean, you never know, maybe Derek will meet a girl and actually let someone in his life."

"Do you honestly believe that?"

"No, but I like to think a twenty-something guy has _some _needs."

Michelle decided to go on a run before school. She was up at the crack of dawn, her hair pulled up in a tight ponytail, the wind chilling her face. With all the frustration she held with Derek she took it out on her run. She stopped to catch her breath when she felt like something was following her. Looking around she saw nothing but it still made her uneasy. Checking her phone she had an hour and a half to get ready for school. Deciding to head back she turned around but stopped dead in her tracks. Up ahead was a black wolf. She had never seen a wolf before but she knew they weren't that big. It looked like if he stood up he would be towering over her, it looked more like a four legged Bigfoot than a dog. His red eyes stared at her, they seemed to stare right into her soul, just as it started to walk towards her Michelle jolted awake.

"What the..." She whispered looking over at her clock. "A dream? But it..."

A text message interrupted her. Lynne had texted her to say she had to get to school early and didn't need a ride. Throwing her lime green comforter back Michelle trudged towards her bathroom. What did that dream mean? Turning the shower on she decided that day after school she was going to investigate. Even if she didn't find anything, there was still a chance she could see Derek.

Taylor was blow drying her hair when she saw her phone light up on the bathroom counter. She had a text from Michelle. She still had to do her makeup she decided to call her instead of a text. "Hey, I'm wondering if you're slowly losing it? I mean, a giant wolf?"

"I know it sounds completely crazy but it felt so real, Tay. So today after you tutor Stiles we are going for a little hike." Michelle smiled pulling her bangs back in a hair clip.

"Hike? Well what about Lynne, is she going?"

"No, she has to work and by the time she gets off it will be dark. And I don't know about you but I don't want to be walking around the woods in the dark with a giant wolf lurking around."

"There's no giant wolf!" Taylor exclaimed.

That day at school Scott saw Lynne standing at her locker. Taking a deep breath he walked over to her. "Hey," He smiled.

"Hi," She whispered running a hand through her hair.

"Look, I'm sorry, I know I was an ass."

"Yeah, you were," Lynne said looking at him with a glare.

Scott looked down at his feet. "I'm really sorry, its just something came up."

Pulling down her black shirt Lynne sighed. "Well is there still 'something' that makes you be a total douche monster?"

Scott chuckled. "I promise, there's nothing going on now. So are we project partners again?"

She smiled. "Yeah, we are, but I swear if you do something like that again I'm gonna punch you in the head."

"Understandable."

After school Taylor stood at Stiles' Jeep. She was worried about if he was going to be the normal, random, fun Stiles that she knew and liked. "Hey," She heard. Smiling she saw Stiles walking towards her. "You weren't waiting that long were you?"

"No, just a couple minutes, you ready for tutoring?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

When they reached Stiles' house they saw his dad's Sheriff car in the driveway. "I thought you said your dad wasn't going to be home."

"I thought he wasn't," He whispered opening his door.

Inside Stiles saw his dad sitting at the kitchen table. "Dad? What are you doing home?" He asked.

"Oh hey, um, I just had to do go over some files."

Stiles saw papers thrown all around the table. "What's going on?"

"Nothing that you should worry about." He sighed then saw Taylor standing with Stiles. "Who's this?"

Stiles wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Oh, dad, this is my tutor Taylor. We're going to go study in my room."

"All right, let me know if you need anything."

When they reached Stiles' room Taylor noticed thick, leather bound books on his desk. "What are those?" She asked him.

"Oh, those? Nothing, just some stuff I was looking up. You need anything?"

"Uh, no I'm fine."

"All right, well I'm going to go get a drink, I'll be right back." He sighed throwing his backpack onto his bed.

When Stiles left the room Taylor walked over to his desk to look at the books. "Lycanthropy?" She whispered.

Opening the books she saw papers with pictures of werewolves, werewolf transformations, and the effects of a full moon on a werewolf. Looking out the window she saw a moving truck. When she heard footsteps coming back up the stairs she quickly folded up one paper stuffing it in her back pocket. "Hey, who's moving in?" She asked as Stiles took a drink of his water.

"Oh, well moving back actually, thats my neighbor Samuel. He moved away a few years ago but decided to come back."

Taylor nodded unzipping her backpack for them to get started. At the vet's office Lynne was finishing up drying a Boston Terrier when Sheila walked in. "Hey, honey, how are you doing?"

"Pretty good, after he gets done I just have clean up then we're done."

"Good, good, so are you going to the Spring Carnival on Friday?"

"I'm thinking about it, I might ask Scott if he wants to go."

"Oh, are you two together?"

Lynne blushed. "No, but..." The bell ringing in the front interrupting their awkward conversation.

Back at Stiles' house he was trying to concentrate on homework but he couldn't get his broken date with Taylor. If she _was _the other beta then if they went out there's a chance he could get killed but if she wan't then there's no reason for them not to go out. "Stiles? Stiles?" He heard, Taylor was staring at him with a weird look on her face.

"Uh, yeah, what's up?"

"You were staring into space, you ok?" She asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good, I was just thinking about something." He coughed scratching his head.

She chuckled. "Ok, well is there anyway you can let me in on what's going on up there?" She smiled pointing her pen to his head.

Stiles laughed. "Well I was thinking about this Friday, have I totally blown my chances at going to the carnival with you?"

That surprised her. "Um, of course not, I'm just confused. You just broke our date last night. Why are you changing your mind all of a sudden?"

"I...I just had a change of heart. So we're on?"

Taylor smiled and nodded her head. Her phone beeping caught her attention. "Oh, time's up. Michelle said she's waiting for me outside."

"All right, I'll walk you out." When they walked downstairs Stiles noticed his dad was still sitting at the kitchen table looking over papers. Outside Stiles waved at Michelle sitting in her car. "So I'll see you at school."

"Yeah, please don't change your mind again about Friday." Taylor smiled giving him a quick hug.

"I won't, I promise." Stiles laughed as she walked out to her friends' car. When the Honda was out of sight he went to check on his dad. "Hey, so what _are _you looking at?"

"Stiles, I don't think you should get involved...even though you've never listened to that before." Mr. Stilinski sighed rubbing his forehead.

In Michelle's car Taylor unfolded the piece of paper she had taken from Stiles' room. "Hey, I found this, I thought it looked like what you described to me."

Michelle looked over the paper. Her eyes widened. "This is exactly what was in my dream." She whispered. "His eyes were red, it was like he could see into my soul. I'm not even kidding."

Taylor gave her friend a weird look. "Well Stiles had all these papers and books on werewolves, it looked like he had been researching them for a while."

Michelle sighed putting the paper in her bag. "Well I know the place my dream was at."

"Where?"

Michelle was almost scared to tell her. "It's close to Derek's house."

"Derek? Please don't tell me we're going to his house."

"Not exactly his house, its close to the property line." She explained as they passed by neighborhoods going towards a dirt road.

"I don't like this." Taylor sighed thinking this was beginning to look like a horror movie. Two teenage girls enter the woods but they don't come back out.

"Relax, I just want to check it out, then we'll leave."

"And you're buying me Taco Bell." They made a deal as Michelle stopped the car. "It shouldn't be dark for a couple hours so we're good on time."

Michelle slammed her door. "Why are you so worried about this?"

"I don't know about maybe it has something to do with the fact that we're almost at the guy's house who attacked and killed people." Taylor snapped as they made their way into the woods.

"There was no evidence against him so it couldn't have been him, now come on." Taylor shook her head, her friend liked the ultimate bad boy of Beacon Hills.

Lynne was finished up sweeping the grooming station when Scott walked in. "Hey, ready to go?" He asked slipping on his gray jacket.

"Almost, so how are you doing on the project anyway?"

"Oh, I..." He was interrupted by a knocking on the front door. "Hang on a sec."

Lynne looked out to see Scott talking to another guy. He didn't seem that much older than them, he had dark black hair, and was wearing a leather jacket. It looked like they were almost arguing, just as Lynne was about to walk out to see what was going on Scott walked back in. "Hey, you ok?" She asked about to reach out to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I'll meet you out front." He grumbled walking back outside.

Lynne finished cleaning in a flash, rushing outside to see Scott gone without a trace. Sighing she took out her phone to call Michelle. When she didn't get an answer she decided to walk home. During the walk she tried texting Scott, 'Just wanted to see if you were ok, text me back.' When she hit send she heard a car pass her. A black Camaro with tinted windows preventing her from seeing who was inside. The car slightly pulled up beside her before speeding off down the road. "Nice to see you too, whoever you are." She whispered walking a little faster to her house.

Michelle and Taylor had been walking for about thirty minutes without seeing anything suspicious. "Ok, so far we've seen nothing and even though its Spring, its still freakin' cold." Taylor sighed pulling up the hood on her white sweatshirt.

"Its just a little further, do you have your phone with you?" Michelle asked as they walked off the small path they had been on.

"No, like it really matters, I doubt you would get a signal out here." She answered. "Ok so what all happened in this dream?"

"I was running, I was on one of those pissed off runs I go on, you know?" Taylor nodded knowing Michelle had a habit of taking her frustrations out on a four mile run. She didn't come back til her anger was completely gone. "Well I was out here and I just felt like something was following me but every time I turned around there was nothing there."

Taylor listened stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Ok, go on."

"Well when I was about to turn and head for home I saw this thing, all black with these terrifying red eyes. I thought it was Bigfoot at first but it was on four legs. It looked like one of those monsters in those stories your older brother used to tell us to make us scared to go in the woods."

"Yeah, but those were just stories, and this was just a dream." Taylor sighed. "Look, I'm cold, and so far we haven't seen anything so let's just head back."

"Wait," Michelle whispered grabbing Taylor's arm. "Look at this." She said bending down to look at a footprint. "Its an animal right?"

"Yeah, but a wolf footprint would be about the size of a regular dog, probably a little bit bigger." Taylor explained examining the print.

"Maybe its not just a wolf."

"Michelle, really? I think you've seen 'Twilight' one too many times. There is no such thing as werewolves."

"Then why was Stiles so interested in them? Did he say anything about those books you found?"

Taylor sighed. "He didn't know I looked at them. He was out of the room when I found them." She explained. "Maybe its some weird guy thing, he just wanted to know about them. He is the guy that is full of random information."

Michelle nodded. "Ok, well let's head back, even if you don't believe me I'm not letting this go."

As they started walking they heard a car in the distance. "It's him." Michelle whispered walking towards where they heard a sound.

"Wait, who?" Taylor exclaimed following her friend deeper in the woods.

"Shhh." Michelle snapped hiding behind a tree.

Taylor hid behind a tree behind Michelle's. "Why are we hiding?"

"Cause I don't want him to see us." She whispered.

Taylor was about to say something else when they heard the car come to a stop. Stepping out the car they saw Derek. He slammed his door heading up to his house. When he was completely out of sight the girls started to slowly walk back towards Michelle's car. "So that was Derek, huh?" Taylor asked when they were safe enough distance away.

"Yeah, cute right?" Michelle laughed.

"Yeah, if you're into that bad boy, leather jacket wearing, antisocial..."

Michelle interrupted her. "Ok, I get it."

Lynne was sitting in her living room. Being mad at Scott actually helped her finish her half of the project. Anger is always the best motivation she thought. Flipping through the channels she heard a knock at her front door. Sighing she turned the TV off before answering the door. Scott stood there with a sorry expression on his face. "What are you doing here?" She asked placing her hands on her hips.

"I'm sorry about earlier, I just had a bad...day, that's all." He sighed. "Can you please give me another chance?"

"Dude, you're already running out of chances." She whispered scratching the back of her head. "I'm gonna regret this aren't I?"

"More than likely," He sighed. "So am I forgiven?"

"Yeah, but Scott I really don't want to have another one of these conversations." She said crossing her arms. "And..." She started walking back into the living room to pick up her reports. "I finished my half of the project. You can look at these if you need any help."

"Ok, I'll work on it when I get home." He smiled. "And I actually wanted to ask you something."

"Ok, shoot."

"The Spring Carnival is Friday, I was wondering if you wanted to go with me."

"As a date? Or as friends?"

"As whatever you want to call it." He smiled biting his bottom lip waiting for her answer.

"Ok, I'm in." Lynne laughed. "I'll meet you there at six?"

Scott nodded. "I'll buy the tickets."

Lynne smiled watching him walk away. Maybe there was hope for them after all.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Fix Up

Michelle and Taylor had stopped by Taco Bell on their way home from their detective work. Since it was still early they decided to go in, they saw a couple kids from their school. One of which was Eli, he waved at Michelle when she walked in. "Since when are you and Eli so close?" Taylor asked as they waited in line.

"Since we both had the same Calculus class, thanks to him I passed that class last semester." She explained.

After they had gotten their food and sat down Taylor received a text from Lynne. "Who is it?" Michelle asked taking a bite out of her burrito.

"Lynne, she said to get on ooVoo as soon as we get home. Really exciting news." She sighed taking a sip of her Mountain Dew. "I'm pretty sure that's what it says, there's a few misplaced letters and some numbers in the words." Lynne had a habit of random typing whenever she was excited. It doesn't matter what word it was there could be a random number instead of a letter.

Eli and his friend Jordan came and joined them. "Ladies," Eli smiled taking a seat next to Michelle.

"Hey, what's up?" Michelle asked.

"Nothing much, where are y'all coming from?"

Taylor looked at Michelle before saying. "Just taking a hike, we wanted some fresh air."

"Just stay away from the Hale property." Jordan laughed. "I heard that freak lives there again."

Hearing Eli and Jordan laugh about Derek make Michelle's fist clench. Sure she barely knew the guy but they didn't have any right talking about him like that. "Yeah, I can't believe he got away with all those attacks. Must be a really lucky dude," Eli smirked trying to wrap his arm around Michelle's shoulders.

She pushed him back. "Well, I'm done, Tay, you ready?" She asked pushing him out of their seat.

"Uh, yeah, see you guys later." She coughed grabbing her trash. When they were outside Taylor had to run to catch up to her friend. "Hey, what was that about?"

"Nothing, they're just douche bags." Michelle quickly answered.

The wind blew Taylor's blonde hair out of her face. "Wait, do you really like Derek? Cause every time someone associates him with the attacks you defend him."

"Maybe I do, maybe I think he's not this monster everyone makes him out to be."

"But what if he is?"

Michelle stopped. Sighing she ran a hand through her hair. "Look, I know he doesn't have the best reputation and I've only seen him once but there's just something about him that makes me believe that he's not what people make him out to be."

"Well I trust your judgement, but just don't rush into anything. I don't want to see you get hurt." She smiled.

"I won't, I'm a big girl, I can handle myself. Now come on, we better see Lynne before she explodes."

They decided just to drive to Lynne's house. It was dark by the time they reached her brick two story home. "Hey girls, what are you doing here?" Lynne's mom asked at the front door.

"Uh, we just wanted to see Lynne, is she here?" Michelle asked.

"She's up in her room."

Saying a quick 'thanks' they ran upstairs. Bursting through her bedroom door Taylor laughed. "So what's so exciting that you couldn't even tell us through text?"

Lynne was smiling from ear to ear. "Ok that smile is really starting to creep me out so hurry up and tell us." Michelle smirked.

"Scott asked me to go to the Spring Carnival with him," She exclaimed. Taylor squealed with her but Michelle just threw her arms up.

"Well this is just great, now I'm the only one without a date!"

"We'll find you someone to go with." Taylor smiled wrapping her arm around Michelle's shoulders.

"Oh, no remember the last time you guys set me up on a date? The guy had longer hair than I did, and I'm pretty sure shopped in girl stores."

"Well it won't be like that this time, we promise." Lynne smiled.

"It better not or I'm kicking both of your asses." Michelle grumbled.

The next few days were quiet. Turns out most students were volunteered to help set up for the carnival that Friday during school. Scott and Stiles carried boxes of prizes to the games. "So you and Lynne huh?" Stiles asked picking up another box.

"Yeah, there's something about her, I just feel good around her." Scott explained. "Like there's no pressure when I'm with her."

Stiles nodded as they walked to the pop a balloon game. "Hey, what about you and Taylor? I thought she was just your tutor." Scott asked.

"Well, maybe its how different she is than Lydia. How she really wants me to succeed when she's tutoring me. She doesn't look at me as Stiles the geek."

Scott nodded. "Hey, there they are." He pointed seeing Lynne and Taylor setting up bake sale tables. "Come on."

Lynne smiled seeing the guys walking towards them. "Here comes your boy." She whispered making Taylor blush slightly.

"Hey, bake sale?"

"Yeah," Lynne sighed. "Its supposed to raise money for the lacrosse team, so you guys can have new uniforms or something."

"Sweet, you know, as co-captain of the lacrosse team, I can help out with this." Scott smirked.

"Well if you can bake that will be a big help." Taylor laughed.

"Ok, just so you two know I'm not going to be a...fifth wheel." Michelle grumbled walking over to the tent.

"Actually, we have a solution to that. Um, Eli asked if you wanted to be his date tonight." Taylor sighed standing close to Stiles.

"Eli? Hell no, I would really rather not."

"Michelle, he practically begged us to tell you about this. He really wants to go with you. Come on, give him a chance." Lynne muttered.

With a growl Michelle answered. "Fine, I'll go, but all of you owe me a caramel apple."

"Deal." Taylor smiled hugging Stiles' side. "Ok, well we're done here, all that's left is the food which will come later. So us girls are going to my house to get ready." She explained. "We'll meet you out front later tonight."

"All right, see you later." Stiles smiled as they walked away. "You know, even if the new werewolves attack I'm going to try and enjoy my night."

"Good thinking, Stiles." Scott laughed as they walked back to see if their coach needed anymore help.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Date or Disaster?

Michelle was lacing up her new Converses, thinking how she was going to survive the entire night with Eli. She had decided to wear a white shirt with peacock feather designs on the front with a black tank top underneath. Her dark wash skinny jeans and brand new black and white Converses finished her outfit. Taylor was taking the curlers out of her hair when Michelle walked in. "How long did you have those in your hair?" She laughed.

"An hour and a half," She sighed fluffing out her hair. "Its the only way my hair will curl. How are you feeling about the date with Eli?"

"I would really rather not call it a date, more of a sympathy night together." She groaned brushing her hair.

Taylor smiled slipping on her black lace shirt. "Well just try and think positive." She said fixing the quarter length sleeves.

As Taylor was putting on her black slouch boots Lynne walked in wearing a light blue long sleeve shirt. "Have you guys seen my black vest?" She asked flipping up Taylor's comforter.

"No, where did you last have it?" Michelle said fixing her hair in the mirror.

"I don't remember." Lynne whispered looking under the bed.

"Are you nervous about your date with Scott?" Taylor asked.

"A little bit." She mumbled finding her vest at the foot of the bed. "I wonder if he's nervous." She said buttoning the gold buttons.

Later that night Scott and Stiles stood at the entrance of the carnival waiting for their dates. Eli had decided to go ahead and go in leaving Michelle a ticket with Stiles. "What time is it?" Scott asked for the fourth time.

"Five minutes past the last time you asked me that." Stiles sighed stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Dude, relax."

"I'm just nervous, this is the first time I've been out with a girl since Allison. I just want it to go well."

"I understand man, but come on don't stress yourself out. We'll go, have a funnel cake, go on the ferris wheel, and win them a stuffed animal; simple as that."

Scott looked through the arched entrance to see Eli laughing and joking with his friends. "Do you think Eli is ready for this?"

Stiles looked back at the blonde, six foot guy. "Honestly I don't see Michelle sticking around for the whole date."

A couple minutes later they saw the girls walking towards them. Now Stiles was starting to get nervous. "Dude, my hands are sweating, do you think she will notice?" He whispered.

"No, just calm down."

"But what if...Hey!" He smiled as he saw Taylor get closer.

"Hey boys," Lynne smiled stepping towards Scott.

"Hey, uh, Michelle, Eli kind of already went in, but he bought you a ticket already." Stiles explained holding out the pink ticket for her.

"Great," She cringed taking the ticket from him. "That's just great."

Stiles hesitantly took Taylor's hand as they started to walk in. Lynne had her arm through Scott's as they made their way into the carnival. "Hey, Michelle!" Michelle heard from behind her.

"Eli, hi," She forcibly smiled. "Thanks for my ticket."

"No problem, so what do you want to do first?" He asked the group.

Taking a look around Taylor pointed out, "Bumper cars?"

"Sounds good to me," Everyone nodded hurrying over to get in line for the ride.

Sensing an awkward silence Stiles mumbled, "You look really pretty."

Taylor looked up at him and smiled. "Thanks, you don't look too bad yourself." She whispered gently squeezing his hand.

Scott and Lynne were having a playful argument about pirates and ninjas. Lynne stood her ground saying ninjas were far better than pirates while Scott kept saying pirates were more epic. Michelle however wanted to pull her hair out listening to Eli. He kept going on about parties at his house. She had never been to one and didn't have any plans to attend one. "I'm riding with Lynne!" She exclaimed thinking she had to get away from him.

"Oh, ok," Lynne laughed knowing Michelle was about to punch her date in the face.

Taylor was in her own car while Michelle drove her and Lynne's. Scott, Stiles, and Eli were in their cars behind them. When the bell rang everyone was off. Michelle made it her mission to ram Eli. "What the hell?" Lynne yelled hanging onto the side.

"This is as close as I can get to causing bodily harm to the guy." She explained driving around to hit Taylor.

Taylor was trying to avoid Scott and Stiles, who had decided to double team her. She screamed when she felt someone hit her on the side. Looking for her friends they nodded to each other to ram the boys. At the end of the ride it was pretty obvious the girls won. "Hey, I'm hungry anyone want anything?" Lynne asked.

"You owe me a funnel cake." Taylor smiled to Stiles.

"That's right, and I believe we owe Michelle some caramel apples."

"Yep, and I'm holding you to that." Michelle grumbled crossing her arms as Eli lit a cigarette. She wanted to snatch it out of his mouth and put it out.

The girls took a seat at a wooden picnic table while Scott and Stiles went to get food. Eli decided to step away and make a phone call. "So how are you doing?" Lynne asked Michelle who put her hands on her face.

"If it doesn't get better I'm going to say I have a stomachache and go home, can you guys get a ride home with them?"

The two nodded as the boys sat down with a tray of food. While her friends were laughing and joking with their dates Michelle's mind couldn't help to drift to Derek. Taking a bite of her apple she heard Eli's obnoxiously loud voice coming towards them. "Ok, if you guys don't have any plans for tomorrow night I got the hook up for a couple kegs." He laughed grabbing some popcorn.

Everyone nodded thinking they would have more fun without him in the group. Scott looked at Lynne. "So how do you like working at the vet?"

"I like it, I didn't think I would like coming home smelling like dog every night," She chuckled. "But turns out there are some perks."

She thought she saw a slight blush on his cheeks. When she saw Michelle not smiling she knew she was about to bail. When Eli stepped away again to go to the bathroom Michelle stood up. "Ok, I'm not really feeling that well. I'll see you guys later." She sighed standing up from the table.

"You sure?" Taylor asked Stiles stealing the bite of funnel cake from her fork. "Hey!"

"Yeah, I'll text you two later." She smiled walking towards the exit. She stopped before walking back to grab two more caramel apples. "Ok, now I'm gone."

Everyone laughed as she walked away. Throwing their trash away the girls went to the restroom, while the guys stood at the Ferris Wheel. They saw Eli approach them. "Hey, where did Michelle go?" He asked.

"Oh, she wasn't really feeling that good." Stiles said scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, well that's cool I just wanted to get laid tonight." Eli sighed. "I'll find someone else, just wait." He laughed walking off to a group of girls who just entered the carnival.

Scott shook his head. "Ok, so far so good." He whispered.

"I know, but its not completely dark yet. If anything goes wrong what are we going to do?" Stiles asked.

Scott shrugged. "Wait, how are you able to control it? You haven't been a werewolf for very long." Stiles asked.

"I don't know, I guess it just comes with the training. I only change now when I'm really angry. Even the full moon can't affect me. Derek's the same way."

Stiles was about to ask something when the girls rejoined them. They decided to go on the ferris wheel, even though Lynne had a slight fear of heights. Scott felt her hand shaking as they stood in line. "If you're scared, we can go on something else."

"Well, I'm not exactly scared of heights. Its more, I'm scared of these carnival rides that look like they were used in the early 1900's." She explained looking at the rusted ride.

"Don't worry," He smirked squeezing her hand.

Lynne had no more complaints about going on the ride. They went in the first car, then it was Stiles and Taylor's turn. The wind blew their hair as they reached the top. "So, nice night, huh?" Stiles asked as the car went towards the ground.

"Yeah, better than tutoring?" She smiled gently leaning on him.

"Much," He laughed.

Lynne looked towards the sky. "The stars are pretty tonight." She whispered.

Scott nodded reaching over to grab her hand which she happily took. "I was kind of nervous about tonight."

She looked at him pushing her hair behind her ear. "Why?"

He sighed looking down at the ground. "Its just...my last girlfriend was Allison and its just been rough on me these past couple months."

Lynne nodded squeezing his hand. "I understand," She whispered. "If you're not ready to start anything, I'm totally fine with it."

"No, its not that," He explained. "I feel amazing when I'm with you. You actually make me like getting to work on time. And walking home together is something I look forward to."

Lynne blushed. "Yeah, our walks are kind of one of my favorite parts of my day."

"Thank you for being patient with me."

Smiling, Lynne leaned in to kiss his cheek. "You're worth it."

"So, having fun so far?" Stiles asked Taylor.

"I really am." She nodded. "I'm glad you changed your mind about tonight."

"Me too," He whispered. "So, uh, I know you as my tutor but I don't actually know _you_, as a person."

"Well what do you want to know?" She asked as their car came to a stop at the very top of the ride.

"Everything." He smiled.

Taylor laughed slightly. "There's not much to tell," She mumbled. "Born and raised here, I have an older brother who is in the military now. My parents are pretty unique." She shook her head. "I guess I'm pretty plain."

"No," He whispered brushing her hair to the side. "I think you're the opposite of plain."

He was making her blush. "Ok what about you? Your turn."

Stiles sighed. "Well I've been friends with Scott since we were little. My dad's not that home very often as you can tell."

"What about your mom?" Taylor asked feeling the ride start up again.

"Uh," He muttered. "She passed away a few years ago."

Realizing she stuck her foot in her mouth Taylor gasped. "Oh my God, Stiles, I'm..."

"Its ok," He smiled. "You didn't know, I don't really talk about it much. Scott's the only one that I've really talked about it with."

To his surprise Taylor leaned in the gently kiss his lips. "You can talk to me about anything." She whispered which made Stiles smile even bigger.

Michelle drove down the empty streets of Beacon Hills. Everyone must have been at the carnival because she barely met any cars on the way to her destination. Smiling she saw the neon green sign of the 'Billiards Bar.' It was a bar but Lynne's aunt was the owner, instead of going to high school parties the girls found themselves there practicing their pool game. The parking lot was completely empty when Michelle pulled in. Parking close to the door she hopped out before walking to the glass door. Inside she walked to the bar where she saw Patty cleaning to glasses. "Well, I thought you would be at the carnival. It seems like everyone else in town is." She smiled.

"I was, didn't have a good time." Michelle sighed sitting on one of the bar stools. "Can I have a cherry coke?"

"Sure," She said picking up one of the glasses. "Lynne and Taylor there?"

"Yeah, they both had dates." She explained pulling on the strings of her woven bracelet.

"And you didn't?" Patty asked passing her the glass.

"I did, he turned out to be more of a frog instead of a prince." Michelle laughed taking a sip of her drink.

"Well, maybe your prince could be in here." She smiled directing her head into the next room where the pool tables were set up. "You're not the only one who avoided the carnival tonight."

Michelle was about to ask what she meant when she noticed someone playing pool. Her smile grew when she noticed Derek standing there examining his shot. She shot Patty a look before walking into the room. "Wow, he actually leaves his house?" She chuckled causing Derek to shoot his head up in her direction.

Of course, Derek didn't answer. Looking at the table Michelle grabbed a pool cue. "Eight ball, corner pocket." She whispered taking a shot. The ball going directly in the pocket.

Derek looked at the table before looking back at Michelle. "What are you doing here?" He asked laying his stick down.

She shrugged. "Didn't have fun at the carnival," she sighed. "What about you?"

He took a sip of his beer. "I'm not exactly welcome in the public if you can't tell." He whispered. "I really don't want to talk about it."

"Well, then let's not talk, rack them up and let me kick your ass in a real game." She smirked.

Back at the carnival Scott and Stiles were relieved to see their dates were still normal with a full moon in the sky. "Well, we finally know its not them." Stiles whispered as the girls checked out the games.

"Yeah, good, but that still leaves the question, who are they?" Scott asked when they heard a scream come from another side of the crowd. "Stiles, if anything happens get them out of here." He said quickly before running towards the sound.

Stiles watched his friend go before rushing over to the girls. "Hey, uh," He muttered.

"Hey, where did Scott go?" Lynne asked trying to look past Stiles, she had seen Scott run away from him but she didn't know why.

"Uh, he," Screams were heard as people started running past them. Lynne was separated from Taylor and Stiles.

"Taylor!" She yelled but kept bumping into people trying to run away. Going against the crowd she made her way back up to where she saw Scott running.

A loud crash caught her attention, she saw someone land in one of the food tents before getting right back up. Then she saw Scott in the distance in a crouching position. "Scott?" She whispered trying to get closer.

She was taken back when she saw his eyes, they weren't the brown that she was used to. They were...yellow, menacing. 'That can't be Scott,' she thought slowly backing up from him. "Lynne!" She heard, looking behind her she saw Stiles and Taylor running towards her. "Come on, they're shutting the carnival down, we gotta go."

Lynne nodded following them out of the carnival to Stiles' Jeep. "What about Scott?" She asked climbing in the back, Taylor jumping up front.

"Uh, he said he would meet us somewhere, don't worry." Stiles said quickly climbing in the drivers seat.

Scott growled seeing the werewolf in front of him. He was a rookie fighter, Scott had been able to throw him around without a problem. He didn't know who he was though. He had dark hair like himself, bright green eyes, he kept growling at Scott trying to attack him but Scott kept avoiding him. A loud howl interrupted their fight. The other werewolf looked at Scott before taking off into the woods. Before he followed him Scott thought it could be a trap. He could go right in and be outnumbered. Without Derek he didnt' stand a chance, even if they were new werewolves. Sighing he transformed back, sending a quick text to Derek he called Stiles. "Hey, where are you?" Stiles asked looking in the review mirror at Lynne who glanced up at him.

"I'll meet you at the gas station." He sighed. "It was a new beta."

"All right, we'll pick you up there." Stiles said quickly hanging up hoping the girls didn't hear the word 'beta.'

Derek would never admit it, but he was actually enjoying himself. Even if he wasn't smiling as much, Michelle proved herself to be good company. Feeling his phone vibrate in his pocket he looked at her lining up her shot, reaching in his pocket he pulled out his Iphone. New text message from Scott McCall. Opening it, his jaw clenched, 'New beta attacked, he ran off, I don't know how many there are.'

"I gotta go." He said quickly throwing his cue aside.

"Wait," Michelle exclaimed running after him. "Derek, what's going on?"

He opened his car door, glancing back at her. "I can't tell you." He whispered climbing in.

Before Michelle could say anything Derek had sped off. Sighing she ran a hand through her hair, just when she thought they were getting somewhere he had to go right back to where they started. "Bye," She sighed walking back in the bar.

Stiles sped to the gas station closest to the fair grounds. Sighing in relief, he saw Scott sitting on a bench in front of the store. Lynne was happy to see him, but she couldn't get those eyes out her head. He looked so menacing, almost like a monster. She was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Taylor open her door for Scott to climb in back with her. Up front Taylor texted Michelle to see how she was. 'Hey, where did you go?' She asked.

'To play pool, I'll tell you more tomorrow.' Michelle replied.

Michelle had been the best pool shark out of all of them. Maybe she made some money off drunk guys that seem to think their pool skills improve with how many drinks they have. Deciding to call it a night Stiles dropped off the girls at Taylor's house. Walking them up to the front door Stiles muttered. "Sorry our night was cut short."

Taylor smiled. "Don't worry about it. I had fun anyway." Stiles leaned down to gently kiss her.

"I'll text you tomorrow." He whispered as they pulled apart.

Lynne was quiet, she kept fumbling with the bottom of her vest. Scott glanced at her. "Hey, you ok?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'm great." She smiled leaning in to give him a quick kiss. "I had fun."

"I'll see you later?"

Lynne nodded before hurrying up the steps to the front door, seeing Taylor holding the door open for her. They waited at the window to watch the Jeep drive off. "Ok, so what did the beta look like?" Stiles asked as they drove down the street.

"He had green eyes, and he just looked confused, like he didn't know what he was doing." Scott explained. "He ran off into the woods, I couldn't follow him by myself."

"Yeah, well we know there's one new werewolf, what are the chances there's more?"

"Pretty good, if the alpha wants a big pack. The bigger the pack the stronger he is." He sighed. "I just don't know how many we're up against."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Past, Present, Future?

Lynne couldn't sleep that night. She kept looking out the window in Taylor's bedroom, it was a reminder of what everything that happened that night. Every time she closed her eyes she saw Scott's almost monster-like face. She kept telling herself it was just her imagination but how could she just _imagine _that? She was laying on her back looking out the window going over every scenario in her head; either it was just a prank, she was slowly but surely losing her mind or...she didn't want to think about the or. Rolling over for the seventh or eighth time she heard Taylor stir beside her, slowly waking up. "Ok, either you really can't get comfortable, or your mind is preoccupied on something." She muttered turning on the bedside lamp.

Lynne sighed sitting up in her friend's full sized bed. "I think I'm losing it."

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked rubbing her eyes.

"Would you believe me if I said I saw a...werewolf tonight?" Lynne almost wanted to whisper that last word.

Taylor was fully awake now, she sat up, her elbows resting on her knees. "Actually right now, maybe. Michelle is convinced she dreamt about a werewolf the other night," She sighed running a hand through her mussed hair. "But why are you talking about them now?"

Lynne took a deep breath, running her hands over her face. "Tonight, when we were separated I went to look for Scott." She paused thinking back to the carnival. "He looked just like what your brother told us about when we were kids."

"Now I regret getting him to tell us all those stories." Taylor whispered rubbing her forehead. "Ok tell me exactly what you saw."

Lynne moved to sit at the foot of the bed. "Well it was Scott but he had hair coming down the sides of his face, he was growling. I saw these teeth..." She cringed. "but his eyes. They were bright yellow, or maybe even gold. He didn't notice me but I still just can't get that image out of my head."

"Well, if it bothers you this much, talk to him about it."

"Yeah, I can imagine how that conversation goes, 'Hey Scott, I think I saw you turn into a werewolf. By the way you're a great kisser!'"

Taylor scratched her head. "Maybe talking to him not's the best option." She shrugged. "So what are you going to do?"

"I'll let you know when I think of something."

"Well I suggest you sleep on it, because its three in the morning and, as one of your best friends, I know you don't make much sense when you're tired."

Nodding Lynne laid back down in her spot. Her nerves were a little more calm but she still felt nervous. Just _what _was she getting herself into? After Taylor turned the light out Lynne pulled the comforter to her chin thinking how she was going to bring the subject to Scott.

Across town Scott and Derek were patrolling the woods. They had been tracking a scent for the past hour and they had a feeling it was just leading them to a dead end. Coming to a stop Scott sighed. "We've been going around in circles."

Derek shook his head. "How many were at the carnival?"

"Just one, but he didn't seem like he wanted to hurt anyone. He was just trying to get away." He explained. "He only became aggressive when I approached him."

Derek nodded clenching his fists. "No one saw you right?"

"The crowd was pretty cleared out by the time I reached the guy." Scott defended. He was about to say something else when he felt his phone vibrate. "Stiles, what's going on?"

"Besides reports of destruction of public property? There's only one other thing reported: Eli's missing."

"Eli, as in Michelle's date?" Scott thought he saw Derek's eyes narrow at the mention of Michelle's name.

"No, Eli as in 'Eli Manning,'" Stiles snapped. "Who else would I be talking about?"

Scott rolled his eyes. "Well what did the report say?"

"A girl said she saw Eli being pushed or tossed aside like a rag doll, but she couldn't see by what. That's pretty much it. I think we need to check out the fairgrounds."

Scott and Derek nodded. "Be there in ten minutes."

They met Stiles at the deserted carnival. A few lights still hung about them but most of the tents and booths were destroyed. "So what are we looking for?" Scott asked.

Before anyone could say anything they saw something that stopped them in their tracks. Eli was half-laying on a busted table, his legs splayed out in front of him. His neck had a huge gash in it, blood pooled down his chest. "Oh my God," Stiles whispered.

"You sure he wasn't aggressive?" Derek asked.

Eli's death was all over the papers the next morning. Michelle couldn't get past the front page. There he was, Eli's smiling picture with the words 'Tragedy this Spring' above it. The article didn't give out much information, only deputies found him early that morning. She tossed the paper aside beside her bed. Leaning back she thought about her dream and Eli's death; could they _somehow _be connected?

Hearing soft knocking at her door she pulled herself from her bed. Before she even reached the handle the door creaked open. Michelle smiled seeing her friends standing there with a carton of ice cream and spoons in their hands. She gestured them to come in as she made her way back towards her bed. "So where did you run off to last night?" Lynne asked as Taylor shut the door.

"I went to our spot." She sighed falling back onto her bed.

Taylor saw the morning paper on the floor. "So I'm guessing you heard about Eli."

Michelle nodded, looking up she saw them sit beside her. "I know the guy was a jerk but I didn't want him to die."

They nodded opening the ice cream. "I wonder if Stiles' dad told him anything." Lynne muttered grabbing a spoon.

"I can ask him tonight when I go over to his house." Taylor suggested placing the lid of the carton on a bedside table.

"So are you two paired off now?" Michelle asked eating a spoon full of ice cream. "Leaving me alone, in my singleness."

"What about Derek?" Taylor asked dipping her spoon in the carton.

"What about Derek?" Michelle repeated. "The guy is colder than Antarctica. Even when I was with him last night..."

"Wait," Lynne exclaimed. "You were with him last night?"

"Yeah, I meant to talk to you two about that," She slightly chuckled.

Lynne and Taylor moved to sit in front of her. Both giving her a look that said 'You better start talking.' "Guys, nothing happened. We just played pool." Michelle sighed holding her hands out.

"Well, that's better than nothing." Taylor smiled.

"Yeah, I guess," She mumbled. "I just wish there was some way to get him to open up to me. I just want to help him."

A couple hours later Lynne decided to go to Scott's house. With every step her anxiety grew. There was still no explanation for what saw the previous night. She thought maybe it was the light, the way it shined on him but that didn't make any sense to her.

When she reached his house she saw his mom walking to her car, dressed in her nursing uniform. "Hi, Ms. McCall," Lynne waved as she walked closer.

"Oh hi," Melissa McCall smiled. "You must be Lynne."

"That's me, how did you know my name?"

"Scott was telling me about you. You know, you're the first one to pull him out of that Allison rut."

Lynne nodded. "I'm glad, I know getting over your first love is hard. I just want to be there for him."

She saw Melissa smile. "Well, I'm glad he has someone like you there for him." Looking down at her watch she gasped. "Oh, I gotta go. Tell Scott to get some sleep. He looks like he's been up all night."

Before Lynne could say anything Melissa had gotten into her car. As she drove off Lynne made her way up the steps to the front door. Inside she called for Scott but she didn't receive an answer. Looking around she saw no sign of him. Deciding to check upstairs she made her way up the staircase trying to see where his room was. Most doors were closed but she saw one open. "Scott?" She called peaking in the room.

What she saw made her smile and blush at the same time. Scott was laying on his bed, flat on his stomach, without a shirt on. Lynne patted her pockets but remembered she left her phone at home. Very carefully she pushed the door open but the creaking woke Scott. "Lynne?" He mumbled sleepily. "What are you doing here?"

"I was bored." She chuckled. "I just thought we could hang out. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"No, it's ok," He yawned sitting up so she could sit down. "Did you hear about Eli?"

She nodded. "Yeah, me and Taylor went to Michelle's house this morning to see how she was doing."

"How was she?"

"She was just in shock, I guess. She seemed ok, but that may have something to do with her seeing Derek last night."

Scott was now fully awake. "Wait, Derek? Derek who?"

"Derek Hale, I think Michelle likes him even if she won't admit it right away."

This was a shock to Scott. He knew he was going to have to talk to Derek, he just didn't know when. Over at Stiles' house Taylor was sitting in her car waiting for Stiles to get home. He just told her he had to do something and for her to wait on him. Sighing she took her seatbelt off. For some reason she felt jumpy, maybe it had something to do with what her friends thinking they saw werewolves in town. The whole day she felt like something bad was going to happen and the unknown scared her.

She almost screamed when someone knocked on her window. Outside she saw a middle-aged man with sandy blonde hair, slight scruff on his face, dull blue eyes that were staring at her. Very hesitantly she rolled down her window. She tried her best to smile. "Hi."

The man nodded. "Who are you? You've been sitting out here for ten minutes."

"Uh, I'm..." She stammered feeling very thankful for Stiles' timing.

Stiles had been at the Sheriff's department, pretending to be visiting his dad but he had been listening to conversations about Eli. There was no evidence pointing to his attacker so the investigation for the moment, was cold. Before Stiles could hear anymore his dad kicked him out. On his way home he tried calling Scott with no answer. He also tried to find the girl who saw Eli before his death, but again he had no success.

When Stiles reached his house he saw Taylor but was a little worried when he saw her expression. "Hey, Samuel, I see you've met my girlfriend." He nervously chuckled slamming his door.

"Yeah, I just saw her sitting out here. I thought I would come over to say hello." Samuel smirked looking down at Taylor, sending chills down her spine. "I'll talk to you later Stiles," He winked. "Miss."

Taylor waited until he was completely gone before opening her door. "So that was Samuel," She whispered walking over to Stiles.

"Yeah, he's always been like that," Stiles sighed.

"Creepy and disturbing?"

"Pretty much."

Taylor didn't know why but she got a bad vibe from Samuel. She felt Stiles wrap an arm around her, making her smile grow but still she felt a nervous feeling in her stomach. Knowing Stiles lived right next to that guy made her feel uneasy. She really cared about him, and the thought of something happening to him felt like a punch in the stomach. "Hey," He whispered. "You ok?"

"I sure hope so," She muttered so quietly he barely heard her.

Meanwhile Michelle was staring at her ceiling. She just wanted the day to end already, but it felt like it was just dragging on and on. Her curtains were drawn letting her see the sun set behind the trees in her front yard. Sitting up on her bed she stared at the dull orange light slowly going away. Thinking back on the previous night, seeing what she thought was amusement in Derek's eyes made her smile slightly. Scoffing she slipped on her tennis shoes and reached for her car keys on her desk. Somehow she was going to convince Derek to get that stick our of his ass for more than a pool game.

Derek had just finished his workout when his phone rang. Picking it up he saw 'Scott' on the caller ID. "What?" He demanded.

"Why were you with Michelle last night? Are you two together or something?" Scott asked quietly watching Lynne cook in the kitchen.

"What are you talking about?" Derek asked but stopped when he heard something snap outside. He heard Scott say something else but he hung up the phone.

Taking quiet, short steps to a window he peaked out into the empty yard, nothing suspicious caught his attention until he heard rustling come from the side of his house. Before Derek could think a wall in his living room crashed, out of the rubble he saw red eyes staring at him. The black, monstrous wolf growled at him, Derek gave the wolf a growl of his own. Just as quick as it appeared the alpha disappeared. Derek slightly titled his head but a pair of headlights on the wall made his head snap up. Looking back out the window he saw Michelle step out of her car.

Nightfall had quickly fallen as Michelle approached Derek's house. She could barely see her hand in front of her face as she opened her door. She took a deep breath as she took hesitant steps away from her car. The wind blowing her hair, twigs snapping under her feet with ever step but it seemed like she had been walking for twenty miles. Just as she stepped onto the Hale's front porch she noticed something else was on the porch with her. Two red, calculating eyes stared at her through the blackness.

Michelle slowly started backing up but every step she took the eyes got closer as well. "Derek!" She screamed as she started running.

Leaping off the porch she started running blindly deep in the woods. She heard it behind her though, it was running just as fast as she was. Looking up clouds covered what should have been a full moon. Not being able to see Michelle felt her foot catch on a log sending her falling down a small hill.

As she tried to catch her breath Michelle heard a sinister growl come from above her. Shuffling behind a tree her breath came in quick gasps. 'Derek, where are you?' She thought covering her mouth.

Just when she thought the wolf would just walk away she heard the bark on the tree rip before she felt pain in her upper arm. Michelle rolled forward trying to avoid the knife-like claws coming down at her again. Crawling she tried to get away but the claws caught her pants leg. A shrill scream pieced the night as the moonlight shone through the clouds. 'I guess this is it,' she thought closing her eyes, waiting for the impact.

Two district growls made her open her eyes. In front of her Michelle saw a black wolf, just like the one in her dream and the other one staring at them. She hesitantly stood, staying right behind the one who saved her life. It's red eyes glanced at her sending her a silent message to hide. Finally finding her footing she ran behind a tree.

The fight was intense to say the least. Growls and snapping noises were all she heard. Michelle was shaking, her teeth chattering uncontrollably as she watched the scene in front of her. Her eyes widened seeing one wolf fall to the ground, a deep gash in his abdomen. Seeing the other alpha down the still standing wolf sniffed his fallen opponent. With a small growl he ran off. Very carefully she stepped out of hiding, her arms wrapped around herself. Michelle still hadn't been able to control her breathing, she could still feel her body shaking. Looking down at the ground she gasped, a hand shot up to her mouth. "D-Derek?" She whispered, tears coming to her eyes.

"Y-you need to get...out of here." He stammered, his voice sounded so weak.

Michelle fell to her knees beside him. She examined his wound. "What can I do?" She asked.

Derek knew she wasn't going to leave him with him wounded like this. "Help me get to my house." He sighed.

Michelle nodded grabbing one of his arms, wrapping it around her shoulder. Very carefully she helped him stand and with small steps they slowly made their way to his house. She couldn't help it, she looked down at the gash, blood dripping down covering the top of his pants. She could feel it seep into her sweatshirt but she didn't care. All she cared about was getting him to his house and bandaged up.

Back at Stiles' house Taylor was sitting on his bed watching Stiles work on his laptop. "So how long have you known Samuel?" She asked.

"Oh, he's lived there for as long as I can remember. He used to live there with his dad but when I was little I saw his dad being wheeled out in a body bag. They never found out what happened to him."

"Did you ever find out why he moved away?" She asked laying on her stomach.

"No, he never said. He kept brushing it off."

Seeing her phone light up she saw a text message from her mom. "I gotta go," She sighed. "she wants me home."

"Oh, ok, I'll walk you out." He muttered standing from his chair.

Outside Taylor gave Stiles a quick kiss before hurrying to her car. She watched Stiles go back inside his house, after he was gone she looked back at Samuel's house. In front was a black mail box with 'Myers' written on one side. "Oh, how fitting," She whispered starting her car.

Back at Derek's house Michelle was cleaning his stomach with a warm wash rag. Very carefully she dabbed it on his skin. She had been very careful not to put too much pressure on the gash, but while she wasn't paying attention the wound had healed itself. "How...?" She whispered running her hand over his skin, like he had never gotten hurt.

"I'm fine," He grumbled trying to move away from her. "How's your arm?"

Michelle had completely forgot about the scratches on her upper arm. Seeing red through her sweatshirt she slowly stripped it off, leaving her in a black tank top. She cringed when she felt his hand run over the three scratches. Luckily they weren't that deep, they looked like they just grazed her skin. "I'll be right back," he muttered standing from their spot on the floor.

She watched him walk out of the room. Her arm twinged a little bit but at least she wasn't in a lot of pain. Looking around the room she was thankful she had stopped shaking after all this time, she finally felt safe. Derek came back in the room with a small first aid kit in hand. Opening it he sat back down in front of her. "Hold out your arm." He gently commanded.

Michelle did what he said watching him pick up a bottle of rubbing alcohol. "This may sting," He whispered gently patting her arm with a cotton ball, cleaning the specks of blood.

She cringed, balling her hand in a fist. "Just a little bit," She grumbled looking down.

After he wrapped her arm in a bandage he packed away the kit. "Why are you here anyway?" Derek asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about last night but now...what was that thing?" She muttered rubbing her arm.

Derek didn't know how to answer her. She had already seen the alpha and him in his werewolf form, so he figured the truth was the best option. "The other alpha."

Michelle tilted her head. "Alpha? But what is that?"

"A very powerful werewolf, just like me."

"So you're both...werewolves." She swallowed but saw him slightly nod his head. "So who is he? Or she...it?"

Derek shook his head. "I don't know, all I know is...he knows about you now, which is going to cause problems for me and Scott."

Hearing Scott's name Michelle's head shot up. "Scott? You mean Scott's one too?"

"He's not an alpha, he's a beta, still a werewolf but not as powerful."

She nodded, biting her bottom lip. "Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because after tonight you are going to need protection. He knows that you know me, and is going to assume that you know about me. He'll want you gone."

Michelle felt herself starting to shake again. "Oh my God, this has been one messed up weekend. And its definitely going to put a damper on prom."

"What does prom have to do with it?" He snapped.

"Oh, I don't know, thinking some psycho werewolf trying to kill me before I even get to go to my prom. Sorry for thinking like a teenage girl."

"Well, I guess you can't go."

Michelle suddenly smiled, a plan forming in her head. "What if you went with me?"

Derek shook his head. "Remember what I told you? I'm not exactly welcome out in public."

"Come on, I need protection, you said so yourself. If you go I will be protected and get to enjoy the dance with my friends. Who knows you might actually have fun too."

Derek didn't even attend his own prom. He saw a hopeful look in her eyes. "I'll think about it." He sighed. "And your friends, they are the ones that are dating Scott and Stiles, right?" Michelle nodded. "If the alpha knows about them...they are in danger."

Michelle stared at him with a frightened look, what if something happened to her friends? She saw the way the alpha attacked her, but she was lucky enough to escape. What if they weren't so lucky?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Questions Answered

A few weeks had passed since Michelle's attack. Ever since then Derek had told Scott and Stiles what they were up against and be prepared at anytime for another altercation. Scott and Stiles were both worried about their girlfriends, just to be safe they kept a close eye on them at night. "Why do I feel like a stalker?" Stiles whispered into his phone. He was sitting outside Taylor's house in his Jeep while Scott was outside Lynne's house, sitting on her neighbors roof.

"We're not stalking, we're protecting." Scott muttered eyeing Lynne's bedroom, he sighed seeing her light turn off.

"Dude, we've been doing this for almost three weeks and nothing's happened. Is Derek sure the alpha is going to target them?"

"I mean the alpha attacked Michelle so what's stopping it from attacking them?" He explained scratching his head. "I just wonder what he's waiting for."

Over at Michelle's house she was once again having trouble sleeping. Ever since the attack she had been restless. Whenever she was with her friends she would try to hide it, they still had no idea what she had been through or that her and Derek were becoming closer. Every night she would look out her window to see Derek, in his wolf form, in the corner of the yard making sure everything was ok. Knowing he was there gave her great comfort but the whole situation scared her. Sighing, she rolled over on her side to look out her window. Looking at the stars she closed her eyes and went to sleep.

The next afternoon Taylor walked into her kitchen to see her mother reading the paper, another teenager had disappeared. She noticed the headline on the front page 'Disappearances up to 4.' "Mom can I see that?" She asked throwing her backpack onto the kitchen table.

"Sure, are you and your friends going somewhere?" Stephanie asked putting her coffee mug in the sink.

"Uh, we're just going to check out prom dresses." Taylor mumbled reading the article.

She knew the boys, they had gone to school with her. Antonio Reynolds, Kevin Drew, and Joesph Johnson, all gone without a trace. Police still had no leads on where they may be or who might be responsible for them. For some reason Taylor kept thinking of Samuel, he seemed creepy enough to be behind this kind of thing, but she was afraid to talk about it to anyone at the moment.

Hearing her mom talk to someone Taylor tossed the paper in he trash. She was digging around in the pantry for the bread when Lynne and Michelle walked in. "Hey, did you read the newspaper?" Lynne asked taking a seat at the bar.

"Yeah, Joe was in my Literature class," Taylor sighed plugging in the toaster.

Both girls noticed Michelle had been unusually quiet the past couple weeks. She just wasn't herself. "Michelle, is something wrong?" She asked.

"Huh?" Michelle mumbled. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just a lot going on in my head."

"You know you can talk to us about it, right?" Lynne smiled placing her hand on her friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, I know, I just...its hard to explain."

Taylor looked over at Lynne, "Well, just take your time, we'll be here when you want to talk about it."

Michelle nodded slightly. She felt bad, this was the first time she hadn't been totally honest with her friends. She didn't know if it did them any good her keeping it a secret or not. Derek told Scott and Stiles that she knew about them, they weren't thrilled about it, but they eventually got over it. They both wanted to tell Taylor and Lynne the truth, but everyone knew it wasn't an easy conversation to have. Derek decided it was best to keep them in the dark for the moment, they would find out when they absolutely needed to. "Hey, you're zoning out again." Lynne said waving a hand in Michelle's face.

"Oh, sorry, um...are you guys ready to go to the store?" She asked standing up from her seat.

"Uh, yeah, let's go." Taylor mumbled throwing away her paper towel. "Let me just grab my purse." She sighed running up the stairs to her bedroom.

She found her bag on her bed, hearing a ping on her laptop she saw her ooVoo chat open up. "Who is this?" She whispered.

'Better keep an eye on your bf.' It read making her eyes widen. Taylor was about to reply when she heard Michelle call her name from downstairs. "Coming!" She exclaimed closing the chat window and logging off her account.

"Hey what took you so long?" Lynne asked seeing Taylor at the top of the stairs.

"Uh, I couldn't find my wallet, let's go." She muttered hurrying to the door. Michelle following close behind.

"Why do I feel like I'm missing something?" Lynne muttered closing the front door behind her.

After another night of patrolling Scott was thankful to finally go home. He could barely keep his eyes open as he crashed on his bed. Hearing his phone ring, he groaned. "What?"

"Did you see anything last night?" Derek asked.

Scott wondered how he was even awake and able to talk. "No, Derek, nothing has happened since Michelle's attack. What are we going to do?"

"I don't know," He sighed. "But the next full moon is on prom night."

Scott ran a hand through his hair. "Great, me and Stiles will keep a lookout at the dance." He paused. "Wait, are you going to go with Michelle?"

The line went quiet. "Derek?" But there was nothing. "Derek at a prom? I would like to see that happening."

The girls were walking downtown trying to find their local dress boutique. Michelle could hear her friends talking but she was barely paying attention. "Michelle?" She heard.

"Huh?" She mumbled looking behind her.

"You know the store is right here, right?" Lynne laughed pointing to the brick building, a bright pink sign saying 'Lulu's Boutique' hung overhead the glass double doors with an open sign hanging on one of them.

"Oh, right," She chuckled walking backwards to the store.

Both Lynne and Taylor were worried about Michelle. Whenever they were together she would be there with them, physically, but they could tell her mind was somewhere else. She would always wave them off and say everything is ok, but they knew better. "So what kind of dress are you looking for?" Taylor asked picking out a few dresses in her size.

"I don't know yet, Scott said he didn't care what color, he's pretty much along for the ride." Lynne snickered holding a light green dress up.

Again, Michelle was quiet. She was scanning a few racks but it looked like she was just staring passed them. "Hey," Taylor said waving a hand in front of Michelle's face. "You in there?"

"Huh, oh, you know I'm not really into dress shopping today." She sighed walking back out one of the store's doors.

Lynne and Taylor sighed, "Come on, we better check on her." Lynne whispered placing the dress on a leopard print chair.

Taylor nodded putting her dresses down. Michelle was sitting on a green bus bench when they walked outside. "Hey, you ok?" Taylor asked sitting on one side of her friend, Lynne on the other.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I just didn't like any of those dresses. That's all." She muttered running her hands through her hair.

"Well why didn't you just say so?" Lynne smiled. "We could have gone to a different store."

Now she felt really awful lying to them. It was now or never. "Guys, its not the store its...something happened a few weeks ago." She explained rubbing her upper arm where the alpha had scratched her.

"What happened?" They both asked simultaneously.

"I...saw something, I went to go see..." She mumbled but Lynne's cell phone rang.

"Crap, its Scott, probably has something to do with the tux appointment, I hope he remembered to go today. I'll be right back." She sighed walking off to take the call.

Taylor shook her head. "So what were you saying?"

Michelle looked her friend in the eye, somehow she just couldn't find the words to even start to explain her situation. "Nothing, never mind, forget I said anything." She sighed rising from the bench. "Look how about we shopping for dresses on our own? Keep it a surprise until prom?"

"Ok, if that's what you want to do." Taylor smiled standing up from her spot on the bus bench. "We'll tell Lynne about it when she comes back."

Just then Lynne stomped back to them, looking like she was ready to pull her hair out. "Apparently he and Stiles both missed their fitting and they can't get another one til next week."

"Next week? Next week is prom." Taylor exclaimed.

"I know, I had to hold in a few choice words while I was talking to him." She said. "Ok, Michelle, what did you want to talk to us about?"

"Um, I was just thinking, what if we get dresses on our own? Surprise everyone when we get picked up in the limo." The lie felt like acid going down her throat. Best friends aren't supposed to lie to each other, especially when they are involved in this dangerous werewolf situation.

"Oh, I actually like that idea. I just hope we can find dresses at this time." Lynne frowned knowing they all had waited until the last minute for shopping.

That night Taylor was afraid to log onto ooVoo. She couldn't get that IM out of her head, she was already worried about Stiles enough, now she was in full panic mode. "Mom, I'm borrowing your car." She yelled not waiting for her mother's response.

Across town Michelle had decided to pay Derek a little visit. She only saw him outside her window at night, she figured they needed some _real _time together. Not as a date, but as two friends eating some Chinese food. He must have heard her pull up because she saw him opening the front door. "Hey," She smiled feeling those butterflies in her stomach. Knowing they were actually going to talk instead of see each other through a window made her blush.

"What are you doing?" He asked crossing his arms. He remembered the last time she was here it ended in her running for her life in the woods.

"Nice to see you too," Michelle chuckled grabbing the brown paper bag in her front seat. "Look, I'm tired of just seeing you in full bodyguard mode in my backyard. I want to actually talk. And just in case you say no, I brought something to bribe you with." She smirked holding up the food.

Derek sighed looking down at the wooden porch. "Fine, come in."

'I knew that would work.' She thought walking up the steps to the front door. Inside she followed him through the dark house to what used to be the kitchen. There was hardly any furniture or fixtures, just a wooden table with two chairs, the charred remains of what used to be cabinets, and a tiny fridge. "I take it you don't cook that much," She whispered placing the bag in the middle of the table.

Michelle didn't get a response, instead she saw him pick up two plastic forks in a cardboard box sitting on the floor. "I was never the best cook anyway," He mumbled handing her a napkin.

"I can make you a mean cup of Ramen sometime, if you like."

That got a small smile out of him. "I just have what's necessary. Other than that there's not much in here."

Michelle nodded handing him a tiny white and red box. "Well, dig in, I didn't know what you liked so I got a little bit of everything."

Derek took the box from her saying a quiet 'thank you.' Now she was glad she did this, maybe it _could _be considered a date. At least that's what Michelle was calling it in her mind.

Lynne was fuming as she approached Scott's house. She wouldn't be freaking out as much if prom wasn't so close but considering they didn't have much time she almost wanted refuse thinking about everything that had to be done. "Ok, please tell me you were trapped in a well and had to wait for Lassie to rescue you and that's why you missed the appointment." She groaned opening Scott's door.

"Uh, no not exactly," He mumbled leaning back in his computer chair.

"Scott, prom is a week away," Lynne sighed running her hands through her hair. "Can you go tomorrow or is it closed?"

"I'll check," He smiled but heard his phone ring on his bed. Looking at the caller ID he bit his bottom lip. "I gotta take this, I'll be right back."

When he left Lynne made herself comfy on his rolling chair. Setting her arm on the desk she accidently bumped his MacBook cutting it on. Seeing the screen light up she took a look at his desktop, folders were on the side. 'School, Vet.' Lynne felt her heart break a little bit when she saw one folder in particular. 'Allison.' Peaking out the door she saw no trace of Scott, turning back to the laptop she clicked on the file. Pictures of Allison popped up, just her alone, some with her and Scott. They looked like they should be in a catalog together, so perfect and happy...so in love. Taking a shaky breath Lynne walked out of the room to the bathroom. She knew she shouldn't but it was hard trying to hold back tears, she knew they weren't together anymore but was there a reason he kept all those pictures? Maybe he just wanted to hold onto memories, or maybe he wanted more memories. Not with her, but with Allison.

"Lynne?" Scott called walking back into his room but he saw no sign of her.

Taylor sped to Stiles' house. She just wanted to make sure he was ok and that Samuel was no where near him. Pulling into his driveway she saw that the house was completely dark and Stiles' Jeep wasn't there. "Ok, don't worry, he's probably still at school," She whispered unbuckling her seatbelt.

She kept gripping her steering wheel hoping Stiles would just magically pull up but as minutes passed she saw no sign of the beat up Jeep. Seeing a light turn on over at Samuel's house she glanced over seeing Jackson and Kevin walking up the steps to the front door. "What are they...?" She said, quietly opening her door.

Sneaking up to a window of Samuel's house Taylor bent down to peak inside. She saw Jackson and Kevin talking but no sign of Samuel. Taylor quickly ducked down when she saw one glance in her direction. Taking a chance she looked back in the window but saw them walking to another side of the house. Taking quiet, tiptoeing steps along the wall the side wall of the house she saw a light shining on the grass, it was a basement window. Bending down on one side Taylor checked the yard before looking through the glass. There was Samuel and Antonio, talking, serious looks on both of their faces. Trying to hear what they were saying Taylor pressed herself to the wall listening to their conversation.

"The full moon is next week." Antonio pointed out.

"I'm aware," Samuel growled. "But its also Beacon Hills prom, another social gathering for you idiots to crash and almost expose our secret."

"It wasn't our fault," Jackson exclaimed. "Don't blame us for Joesph's stupidity. He was the only one not able to control his change."

'Change? Secret?' Taylor thought feeling the wetness of the grass seeping through her jeans. Biting her bottom lip she listened for more. "It doesn't matter, even if he was a new beta, that means you two should have chained him." Samuel yelled pointing to a metal cage on the other side of the basement.

Jackson shook his head. "Well if you knew he was going to change _you _should have done something."

"I'm the alpha, if it wasn't for me you wouldn't even be here, now would you Mr. Whittemore? You wouldn't be able to achieve what you've wanted for the past year."

Taylor saw Jackson's hands begin to shake with fury. His eyes narrowed at Samuel. "If it wasn't for me your sorry ass wouldn't have a pack in the first place!" He snarled his teeth lengthening.

Jackson charged Samuel, swinging an arm he tried to hit Samuel's head. "You forget," Samuel whispered suddenly appearing right behind him, he grabbed Jackson's neck in a tight grip. "I'm stronger, faster, and better than you." He squeezed making the teen choke. "Now, be a good little beta, and do as your told."

Jackson's bright eyes returned to their dull blue, his strength leaving his body. Samuel dropped him on the cold, concrete. Now Taylor could barely breathe, she placed a hand on her stomach feeling her whole body shaking. Her friends were right, werewolves did exist. Not only did they exist but they were people they _knew _and Samuel was the ringleader behind the whole thing. Taylor's head shot up when she saw headlights on the other side of the house, towards Stiles' driveway. Crawling to the corner of the wall she saw Stiles' Jeep coming to a stop beside her car. "Thank God," She whispered as she started to walk towards her boyfriend.

"Leaving so soon?" A voice growled behind her. Taylor shot around to see Joesph staring at her.

Before she had a chance to run he grabbed her from behind. "Stiles!" Taylor screamed trying to fight Joesph off.

Stiles stopped dead in his tracks hearing a scream. Looking over in Samuel's yard he saw blonde hair. Without thinking about it, Stiles took off in a run towards his neighbors house. "Taylor!" He exclaimed coming to a stop seeing her being held back by...Joesph Johnson. "You...you're alive." Stiles whispered pointing to his classmate.

Joesph growled tightening his grip on Taylor. "Well, well well," They heard. Walking towards them was Samuel, Jackson, Kevin, and Antonio. "Hello, Stiles."

"Samuel, what are you...?" Stiles asked but his eyes widened. "Its you, you're the alpha."

"Correct, I thought you would have figured it out sooner but I guess you just over looked a few things." Samuel chuckled running the back of his hand on Taylor's cheek.

Stiles narrowed his eyes. "Let her go."

"You see I can't do that, I need a...a bargaining chip for something I'm planning."

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"You're going to go to your good friend Scott and his alpha, Derek, and tell them I have a message for them." He snickered stepping closer to the girl. "They are going to meet me at the river at midnight, tonight, and we're need to have a little chat."

"And if they don't?" Stiles whispered.

"Then you can say good-bye to your pretty little girlfriend." Samuel growled.

Stiles saw the fear in Taylor's eyes, the last thing he wanted was for her to get involved in all this. "Ok, we'll meet you. Just...don't do anything to her."

"I can't make any promises. You never know, she could make a very powerful werewolf." He snarled opening his mouth at her neck making her flinch. "Let's go."

Stiles had never felt so helpless seeing his girlfriend being dragged away by Kevin and Joesph. She screamed as they took her in the house making his heart drop in his stomach. "Scott..." He whispered running back to his Jeep to grab his phone.

"Lynne, you in there?" Scott called knocking on the bathroom door again. Hearing his phone ring in his bedroom he sighed, walking away from the door. "Stiles what's going on?"

"Its Samuel, he's the alpha!" Stiles exclaimed running a hand through his hair. "He's got Taylor, they're holding her captive."

"Are you sure?"

"Scott, I just freakin' talked to the guy, Jackson, Kevin, Antonio, and Joesph they're all in his pack." He explained climbing in his Jeep. "Look I gotta talk to you and Derek, meet me at his house. Hurry."

Scott couldn't say anything else before Stiles hung up the phone. Looking out his bedroom door he saw the light in the bathroom was on but something else caught his eye. Over on his laptop he saw his 'Allison' folder open. "Oh no," He was about to go back to the bathroom to try and talk to Lynne again but he knew he had to get to Derek's. "Lynne...I gotta go."

Just as Lynne left the bathroom she saw Scott at his bedroom window. 'What is he...?' She thought but she almost screamed when she saw him jump out of his window. Running over his bed she saw him running towards the woods behind his two story house, totally unharmed. "How the hell...?" She asked running out of the room. Her feet barely touched the wooden stairs as she ran towards the front door.

Lynne knew she couldn't catch up to Scott but she had an idea where he was going. He did seem interested when she mentioned to him that Michelle had been talking to Derek. He kept asking questions about them meeting a few weeks ago. When she got in her car she tried calling Michelle, no answer. The same result with Taylor. "Where are they?" She whispered.

She felt uneasy turning off the main road but she knew she would eventually end up on the Hale property. This was one of the creepiest roads she had ever been on. Dark trees on both sides, the moonlight shining through the branches. Lynne sighed in relief when she saw a big house up ahead. As she pulled up beside Stiles Jeep. "Stiles? What is he doing here?" Lynne mumbled taking off her seatbelt.

Just as she slammed her car door, Lynne saw the front door of the house open. "Who's there?" A voice boomed.

"Um, I'm Lynne," She stammered. "I saw my boyfriend run in this direction. Uh, Scott McCall, is he here?"

"Lynne?" She heard.

"Michelle? Oh my God, what are you doing here?" Lynne cried as Michelle ran towards her.

"Uh, I came here to see Derek...what are you doing here?"

"Scott, like, jumped out of a two story window and ran towards the woods. I just...how the hell did he do that?"

Michelle looked back at the porch towards Derek, who slightly nodded his head. "Why don't you ask him for yourself?" She asked.

Lynne gave her friend a weird look but followed her into the house. Inside she saw Stiles sitting on a wooden chair, a worried and a frightened look on his face. Then her eyes landed on Scott who was sitting on a beat up couch. His head shot up when she walked more into the living room."Lynne, how did you...?"

"I just kind of had a feeling you were here." Lynne explained taking a seat beside him. "Scott, I saw what you did. Its not humanly possible, how did you jump out of a window without being injured? I mean, no scratches or anything."

Scott looked towards the door where Derek stood with Michelle. "She needs to know." Was all he said.

Lynne looked at Scott, to Michelle, to Derek, back to Scott. "What's going on?" She whispered starting to feel uneasy about this whole thing.

Scott stood up, running his hands through his dark hair. "This is going to be hard to explain." He sighed. "I might as well just show you."

"Scott, what are you...?" Lynne gasped as she saw her boyfriend turn into what she saw at the carnival.

Scott looked at her with those yellow eyes, those eyes she had been dreaming about for weeks. "Oh my God." She whispered.

She felt a little calmer seeing him return to his normal self, but she still didn't fully understand. "I'm a werewolf," Scott muttered. "Derek is too."

"I was right," She nervously chuckled. "I saw you, at the carnival. I just didn't know how to bring it up to you."

"Well since you know the truth, you should hear this too." Stiles said standing up from his chair.

"What do you mean, Stiles?" Lynne asked looking up at him.

Stiles swallowed, this was not going to be easy to say. "Taylor's...been taken. I found out who the other alpha is; its my neighbor Samuel. He's been kidnapping guys in our grade, biting them so they will join his pack, including Jackson." He explained. "Taylor must have saw them or heard them because he took her and...I don't even know if she's all right."

"Stiles its not your fault." Michelle whispered stepping towards him. "I'm sure she knows that too."

"I know, but I still should have done something." He muttered looking down at the wooden floor. "He said we have to meet him at midnight tonight. Apparently he wants to talk to Scott and Derek, both. If we don't...there's no telling what's going to do to her."

Lynne and Michelle were silent. "Its ten o clock now." Scott said checking his phone.

"Are you guys going to go?" Michelle asked nervously running her hands over her jeans.

"It's risky, we could be walking right into a trap." Derek stated. "How big is his pack, Stiles?"

"Jackson, Joesph, Antonio, and Kevin were the only ones I saw." Stiles sighed. "He said Taylor could be a powerful werewolf though."

"Wait, Taylor's going to turn into one too?" Lynne exclaimed.

"We don't know that, he was probably just trying to intimidate Stiles." Scott said placing his hand on her arm. "Stiles, I know how much you care about her...but."

"No, don't you dare 'but' me right now." Stiles snapped. "He will kill her when he gets the chance, if you two don't meet with him tonight she _will _die."

Michelle and Lynne looked down at their feet. "Guys, I know this is dangerous but..." Michelle whispered. "She's our friend, our best friend, is there some way we can rescue her?"

Derek's eyes softened for a brief moment hearing Michelle speak. "He probably wouldn't attack so close to a full moon. He would rather wait til he and his pack are at their most powerful."

"So you're saying he would wait until next week?" Lynne asked.

"Most likely."

"So does that mean we're going?" Stiles said looking at Derek, who nodded his head.

"But at the first sign of danger you grab her and we run, got it? We're already outnumbered, we can't afford risking anything."

Scott and Stiles both nodded their heads. They were all just hoping Taylor could hang in there for a couple hours.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Plan of Action

The conversation at Derek's house had gone quiet. Stiles kept glancing at his phone to see how much time had passed. Every minute felt like an eternity to him. Midnight couldn't come faster. Lynne had excused herself to the front porch. 'What have I gotten myself into?' She thought. The 'Allison' file was still fresh in her mind but she knew this wasn't the time to talk to Scott about it. She wrapped her arms around herself as she took a seat on the front steps. "Hey, how are you doing?" Michelle asked silently closing the door behind her.

"About as well as I can, I guess," Lynne chuckled feeling the wind blow her dark hair around.

"Yeah, I know how you feel. This whole thing..._this _is why I have been a zombie for the past few weeks." She explained taking a seat beside her friend. "Its not exactly a subject you can bring up during a slumber party."

"I understand." Lynne sighed. "Ok, I know this is probably _the _worst time to talk about this but...I can't get my mind around it."

"What's going on, Lynne?"

"When I was at Scott's house I accidently turned on his laptop, I honestly didn't mean to, but I peaked." She muttered shrugging her shoulders. "He had this 'Allison' file, it was full of pictures of them. It just made me feel uneasy."

"Yeah, but the only way you're going to feel better is to talk to him about. Just not right now, ok? They have so much going on right now."

Lynne nodded. "I hope she's ok." Looking at nothing in the woods.

This was the first time Taylor ever felt like a damsel in distress. Usually she was the brave one, the first to go in a haunted house, comforting others when they were scared but now she had never felt more frightened. Kevin and Joesph had locked her in a cage, a cage for trapped prey. They kept sending her these cold stares that made her blood go cold. Taylor found herself tucked in a corner of the cage, her knees pulled up to her chest, trying to shrink herself hoping she would just disappear. "Why are you doing this?" She whispered looking at the rusted bars of her prison.

"Oh, she speaks," Samuel chuckled. "You don't know everything do you? Did Stiles forget to tell you about Scott? Or what happened to them last year?"

"He never told me anything."

"Well, let me fill you in, yes Scott is a werewolf just like them." He motioned his head to his pack. "Now his alpha, the one who you thought was responsible for the attacks months ago, has control over this area. And I want it."

"Ok you're a ego-centric, power hungry freak, good to know." Taylor mumbled pulling her knees closer to her chest.

She gasped when she felt the cage rattle. Samuel had grabbed the front of the cage, she could see his claws appear. "I would watch what I say, little girl. You have no idea what I'm capable of."

Taylor felt her body start to shake again. She looked down at a small bug crawling on the concrete. "But why do you want this territory?"

"You know about the Hales, correct?"

"The whole family was killed in a fire." She whispered.

"Before the fire, my pack was going to battle the Hales for this whole territory. But before we had a chance the family was torched. My alpha feared we were next so we fled. What I didn't know was hunters followed most of my pack members, and that Derek, his sister, and his uncle survived."

"His sister was killed, but his uncle was in like a comatose state in the nursing home."

"Not exactly, see this is what your little boyfriend has failed to tell you. Last semester, Laura Hale, very much alive, returned only to be killed by her own uncle, Peter, for the power that comes with being the alpha."

"But you said Derek was the alpha."

"Please try and keep up with me sweetheart. Derek killed his uncle for him to become the alpha, but now the only members of the pack are Derek and Scott."

"You're going to kill them tonight." Taylor whispered, her eyes widening as she tried to shrink more into the corner of the cage.

Samuel chuckled. "No, you see werewolves are at their most powerful when the moon is full. So on your precious little prom night, my pack will strike and the Hales blood line will finally end."

"What does Stiles have to do with this? He's not a werewolf, he's just friends with Scott." Taylor snapped narrowing her eyes at her captor.

"You have no idea, do you?" He smirked. "Stiles _wants _to be a werewolf, more than Scott wants it. I don't know why he hasn't gotten the bite for himself."

'Stiles...wants to be one?' She thought looking away from them. One day is Stiles just gonna transform right in front of her into one of these...monsters? She didn't want to think about it, but she couldn't help but think was there any other secrets he hadn't told her?

"Ten minutes to midnight," Scott sighed looking at his phone.

Stiles gripped the steering wheel of his Jeep. They were driving while Derek ran in his wolf form to the river. They had told Lynne and Michelle to wait at the Hale house in the basement til they returned. Derek had to assure them that nothing would harm them in there, apparently he made sure to keep one area of his house secure ever since Michelle's attack. "Dude, its going to be ok," Scott whispered trying give his friend peace of mind. He wasn't successful.

"Scott, I know you're trying to help but the only thing that's going to make me feel better is seeing Taylor safe and unharmed." Stiles sighed keeping his eyes on the dirt road.

Scott didn't reply, he knew nothing would lighten the mood in the Jeep. He knew if Lynne was in this situation he would feel the same way, he already felt something like this when it came to Allison, but now those were distant memories, most of which he blocked out. He felt so much better around Lynne than he had with Allison, with Allison he was nervous, worried about his secret and her family finding out. With Lynne he felt at ease, now that she knows his secret and is willing to stick around made him feel ten times better than he ever had.

Scott was jerked from his thoughts when he felt the Jeep come to a stop. "We gotta walk from here," Stiles mumbled unbuckling his seatbelt.

Silently both boys walked through the dark woods. Both kept a sharp eye out and their ears open for any sounds, footsteps, howls, anything but the only sounds they heard were sticks snap under their feet. Finally they heard water rushing up ahead. They were close to the river. "Wait." Scott whispered. "Do you hear that?"

Stiles stopped and listened. Nothing. "Where's Derek?"

"Right here," They heard from behind them. "Good to know you two can actually pay attention to your surroundings. Come on, we're almost there."

The three walked down a small hill until the river was right in front of them. No sign of Samuel or his pack. "It's midnight," Scott said looking at his phone.

'Where are they?' Stiles thought.

Derek narrowed his eyes. He knew this wasn't a good idea the minute he heard the other alpha's name. He remembered Samuel, his old pack wanted the whole territory and would have done anything to get it. Samuel was a beta, but Derek could tell Samuel wanted to be alpha, he was more of the aggressor when it came to pack meetings. When Derek's house burned he first assumed it was the other pack that started it but when they fled he realized they were afraid the same fate would happen to them. The only thing that bothered Derek was, where was the rest of his pack?

Derek's head shot up when he heard footsteps heading their way. He stepped in front of Scott and Stiles to show his authority, to show that his dominance in this situation even though there was no way of knowing how this meeting would go. "Well, Derek Hale, its been a while." Samuel chuckled.

Stiles noticed Kevin carrying Taylor on his shoulder, he sighed in relief seeing her unharmed. Kevin lowered Taylor to the cold ground, he and Antonio held her arms, her hands tied by her wrists in front of her. Taylor sent a small smile to Stiles telling him she was ok but he could see the fear in her eyes. "Let her go," Derek commanded.

"Hold on, be patient boys, we just got here," Jackson laughed.

"What are you doing back here, Samuel?" Derek asked. "I thought you and your pack cleared out years ago. Why did you even come back?"

"Simple, I wanted to come home, and to answer a question I know you're dying to ask. My pack is dead. Hunters followed them and killed them...well all except the alpha. I took care of him." Samuel explained.

'I knew it.' Derek thought. "What do you want? We can settle this right now."

"Not right now, you don't want an innocent lives lost, now do you Derek? Since its already happened to you before." Samuel smirked glancing over at Taylor. "No, I want us to battle next Saturday. The night where we are _all _at our most powerful. Winner takes over this territory."

"Why do you want this territory anyway?" Scott asked stepping up beside Derek. "Why can't you just live somewhere else?"

"You didn't tell them did you, Derek?" Samuel growled sending a glare to the remaining Hale. "My family controlled this area first, then the Hales decided to move. My stupid leader, _my _alpha, decided we could just share. Remember, Derek? You and your sister were just children at the time."

"I remember." Derek whispered. "I remember you were the only one to actually want a battle."

"I did, and after my alpha...passed away." He snickered. "It was going to happen, finally, my family could live in peace again. Until the fire, and we had to leave..._run _with our tail between our legs."

"Oh, that's fitting," Stiles whispered.

Samuel glared at the teen. "But I _am _going to get my battle. Now after all these years." He looked over at Kevin and Antonio. "And just know, if you fail to show, this could happen to the others you care about so much. Throw her in."

Taylor glanced back to see the boys grab her upper arms. Before Stiles or anyone could react they threw the girl in the rushing river. All the boys eyes widened hearing her scream and a splash. Derek looked back up too see Samuel and his pack gone without a trace. "Where is she?" Scott yelled running to the rivers edge.

"I don't know, I can't see." Stiles cried running down the side. "Guys over here!"

He barely made out a shape of a figure hanging on to a slick rock in the middle of the river. "Stiles!" Taylor screamed trying to get a firm grip on the rock. All her struggling made the ropes tighten against her wrists. She felt her legs go numb, the water feeling like tons of needles pricking her skin.

"We can't reach her," Scott said looking down at the water.

Derek stripped off his leather jacket before shifting into his wolf form. Glancing at the water to Taylor he jumped. He was stronger now in this form, he could fight the current to reach her. Swimming to where she held on he saw she was scared of him. He couldn't say he blamed her, its not every day a werewolf comes to your rescue. "Taylor, its Derek, trust me, everything will be ok," Stiles yelled to her.

She nodded scooting closer to the black wolf who had his claws dug into the rock, holding on as best as he could. Her teeth were chattering as she looped her tied arms over the wolfs neck. Derek turned and kicked his legs as hard as he could against the water. His fur protecting him from the cold. Taylor was afraid she was choking him with her death grip around his neck. Resting her head on his back she tried to keep her eyes open. Even if it was spring the water was still ice cold, maybe she was just going into shock but she could feel herself drifting.

Even though he was fighting the current as much as he could, the water carried them some distance away from Scott and Stiles who were running trying to catch up to them. Derek's front legs climbed up the river bank, his paws sinking into the soft mud. Out of breath and exhausted he shifted back into his human form carrying Taylor away from the water. **(Ok, just saying I know in Twilight the guys are naked when they shift but my story is not like that. He still has jeans and a shirt on. The story would take an awkward turn if that happened.)** Gently placing her on the wet grass he cut the ropes off her hands. He felt her shaking, he was freezing now too. "I-I'm, s-s-sorry," She shivered wrapping her arms around herself.

"For...what?" He asked.

"F-for thinking-g that you were...a bad guy. M-Michelle really likes you." She mumbled. "I-I was wrong."

This was not what he was expecting. "Forget about it."

"Derek! Taylor!" They heard. Scott and Stiles were running down at dirt trail to them. Derek was relieved when he saw his jacket in Scott's hands. "Are you guys ok?"

"Yeah," He mumbled grabbing the jacket, even if he was soaked he hoped it would provide him with some warmth.

"You ok?" Stiles whispered to Taylor, shrugging off his jacket to her.

"I-I'm fine."

"We gotta get her outta here." Scott said.

Stiles nodded wrapping one arm around her back, the other under her knees. He was worried when he saw her eyes drifting close. "Hey, can you stay awake for me?" He said trying to steady his voice. "The Jeep's not that far away."

"I-I'm tired." She whispered.

"I know, but you can sleep later." He mumbled hoping small conversations would help distract her from any pain or the cold.

Scott followed close behind with Derek next to him. Thinking Lynne and Michelle had to be worried he took out his cell phone. "What are you doing?" Derek asked his body temperature back to normal. Being a werewolf had some advantages.

"Calling Lynne, filling them in." He whispered.

Lynne was pacing the concrete floor of the Hale basement. Her feet hadn't stopped since the boys left them. Why couldn't they just go with them? They could help! Michelle sat on a wooden stool along the wall of the basement. Her nails were down to nothing from her biting them the whole time. She remembered before the boys left she wrapped her arms tight around Derek, giving him a quick hug. He didn't hug her back, in fact he looked quite shocked at her sudden action but she was glad she did it. Just thinking about it made her smile, but then she remembered everything going on and panic swept through her. "What's taking them so long?" She asked scratching her scalp.

"I don't know, I'm really worried." Lynne whispered checking her phone for the umpteenth time. "What if something happened?"

Michelle sighed looking down at her converses, she realized these were the ones she borrowed from Taylor's house that previous week. "Then we won't know until they call."

Lynne was about to say something when her phone rang. "It's Scott," She cried pressing Send. "Scott, you ok? Is everything ok?" She asked as Michelle jumped up from her seat rushing to her.

Scott couldn't lie to her. Not about this. "I don't know," He sighed seeing Stiles' Jeep in the distance. "Samuel threw her in the river. Derek had to jump in and save her." Michelle smiled hearing Derek was a hero.

"Is she ok?" She asked grabbing Lynne's hand that held the Iphone.

Scott squeezed his eyes shut. "We're afraid hyperthermia's going to set in. We'll be back as soon as we can, find blankets or anything in the meantime. If we have to we'll go to a hospital but if we do that we'll have to come up with some kind of story to tell her parents."

"Yeah, we'll find some, we'll figure something out." Lynne sighed running a hand through her hair.

"Ok, well we're at the Jeep, be back as soon as we can." He said before hanging up. "Stiles, get in back with her, I'll drive back to the house."

Stiles nodded, Derek took Taylor from his arms so he could climb into the back of the Jeep. When he was inside Derek helped him place Taylor inside beside him. After everyone was in Scott turned the key firing up the engine. Glancing back at Stiles he turned the heat on blast, hoping it could warm Taylor up enough before they reached the house. Putting the Jeep into drive he sped off towards the Hale house.

Stiles kept running his hands over Taylor's upper arms. He could feel her shaking still, but he was thankful when he saw her eyes open. "W-what's going on?" She asked her wet hair sticking to her face.

"We're going back to Derek's house, we gotta get you warm." Stiles answered glancing up in front of them at Scott and Derek.

Taylor nodded leaning her head on Stiles' chest. She was tired and couldn't feel her body, but she refused to fall asleep. "We're almost there," Scott announced looking in the review mirror.

Stiles nodded shifting so he could hold her better. If she wasn't in this situation Stiles would feel extremely happy about holding her this close. Feeling the Jeep pull to a stop he picked her up again. On the front porch he saw Lynne and Michelle waiting for them. "Y'all forgot to lock the basement!" Michelle yelled. "Is she ok?"

Lynne's hands shot up to her mouth seeing her friend, barely conscious in Stiles' arms. "Michelle do you have any clothes in your car?"

"Yeah, I didn't dress out for gym today so I have sweats and a T-shirt." She exclaimed running to her car.

Lynne opened the door for Stiles and waited for Scott to come closer before running into his arms. A couple hours later Taylor's body temperature had almost returned to normal. "No, mom I'm fine, I'm just gonna stay at Michelle's house tonight." She sighed wrapping Stiles' jacket tighter around her. "Love you too, I'll see you in the morning."

"What did your mom say?" Stiles asked with a cup of hot chocolate in his hands.

"Well she's used to me saying I'm going to spend the night with Lynne or Michelle last minute so this is nothing new. I left out the being thrown in a rushing river though." She explained taking the cup from him.

"Yeah, can't say I blame you." He chuckled sitting on the couch with her. "I'm sorry for all this. I didn't want you to get involved."

"Its ok, Stiles, I'm actually glad I found out. Honesty is a big part of relationships right?" She laughed trying to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, but..."

"Stiles, I promise, everything is ok." She smiled grabbing his hand. She knew her skin was still cold to the touch but was grateful when she felt him squeeze her hand back.

"Yeah, I'm staying at Michelle's tonight," Lynne sighed feeling someone's eyes watching her. "Bye, dad." She said quickly turning around to see Scott standing in the doorway. "Hey."

"Hey, you ok?" He asked stepping closer to her.

"I guess I'm a little jumpy." She mumbled putting her phone in her pocket. "How is she doing?"

"She's doing better, Stiles is with her. Michelle and Derek made coffee and hot chocolate if you want some."

Lynne nodded. "Ok, I'll get some later." She sighed taking a seat on the front steps. She was trying to avoid the subject of the 'Allison' file for as long as she could.

"Lynne, something's bugging you, I can tell." Scott said sitting down beside her.

"Yeah, I can't exactly hide it." She muttered looking down at her fingernails. "Ok, when I was at your house I accidently turned your laptop on. I know I shouldn't snoop but I saw a 'Allison' file and I looked at it. Seeing pictures of you and your ex made me feel...bad. I know you're not together but why do you still have that on your laptop. Can't you just delete it? Or do you not want to delete it? Ok, shutting up now." She gasped realizing she said all that in one breath.

Scott ran a hand through his hair. "I kind of guessed this was going to come up. I admit letting go of Allison is hard. She was my first love, I honestly don't know why I still have that file. I meant to delete it a long time ago."

"Well, why didn't you?"

"If I had that answer I would tell you." He sighed. "Look, Allison will always have some kind of meaning to me, but she doesn't have my heart anymore. Someone else does."

"Really?" Lynne exclaimed. "Who?"

"You know her, trust me." He chuckled taking her hand gently pulling her closer to kiss her. "Now do you know?"

"I always knew, I just wanted you to kiss me." She smirked.

Scott shook his head leaning down to kiss her once more. Back inside Derek was pouring two cups of coffee when Michelle walked in. "Ok, my mom thinks I'm sleeping at Lynne's house so we're good." She sighed putting her phone down on the table. "Is that for me?" She asked pointing to the coffee.

"Yeah, I didn't know how long you guys were going to stay here. I thought it might be a long night."

"Thank you." Michelle smiled taking the cup from him. "I'm sorry we kind of took over your house."

"Its ok, its kind of nice to have company for a change." Derek whispered taking a sip from his cup.

"And thank you for saving Taylor. That was pretty brave."

Derek looked down at the wooden floor. It was really the first time in his life he had done something heroic. "Well I was the only one strong enough to fight the current. I knew I would have some pissed off girls if I let her die."

"Yeah you can say that again." Michelle muttered stepping closer to him. "I gotta admit though...I was a little jealous."

"Of what?"

"That Taylor was the one you rescued."

Derek shook his head looking down at her. "If I remember correctly I had to save you once before."

Michelle suddenly remembered her attack, a cold rush ran up her spine. "So what are you going to do about Samuel? It sounds like he wants a fight and won't stop til he gets it."

"I wish we could just avoid it, but I know Samuel won't have that." He explained. "We'll have to come up with a plan later, right now I want to concentrate on making sure you girls are safe."

"So does this mean prom is out of the question?"

Derek stared at her. "I don't know yet, but I have a feeling thats what he wants, for all of us to be together in one place."

Michelle gulped. "Will he really...kill us?"

Derek rubbed her upper arm. He remembered that was where Samuel had scratched her. "Not if I have anything to do about it. I'm sure Stiles and Scott feel the same way."

Michelle was touched. Not only was this guy willing to risk himself to protect her, but he also saved one of her best friends. The ice cube had finally melted.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: A Night to Remember

Lynne could feel the sun shine on her face, she groaned covering her eyes with a hand. Begrudgingly she cracked her eyes open. She found herself using Scott's chest as a pillow, they both were cuddled up on a makeshift cot made out of old tattered blankets on the floor of the Hale house. Sitting up she remembered she borrowed Scott's hoodie before they fell asleep, when she realized it smelled like him she blushed and smiled at the same time. Across the room she noticed Stiles and Taylor cuddled up on the couch, she was relieved knowing Taylor's body temperature was back to normal and that everything was going to be ok. Yawning she stretched her cramped arms in the air but suddenly stopped when she realized two people were missing. Where the hell were Derek and Michelle?

Groaning Michelle tried to bury her face in her pillow. Her eyes shot open feeling someone else in her bed with her. She also realized her right arm was over Derek Hale's midsection. Then she remembered walking into the living room the previous night, everyone else was already asleep except her and Derek. Just when she was about to curl up in an arm chair in the corner Derek offered his bed. "I'm not taking your bed." She whispered looking around hoping she didn't wake anyone up.

"I insist, I can go patrol or something." He grumbled.

"No, you look tired. Come on I won't bite..." She saw his eyes narrow. "Ok bad choice of words, but seriously I'll stay on my side of the bed."

Derek sighed, knowing he was going to lose this argument. "Fine."

Michelle did an internal happy dance as they walked up the stairs. When Derek opened the door to his bedroom she saw just a queen sized mattress on the floor of the room, a black comforter on top of it. Sighing she took off her jacket and boots, there was some part of her that wished he would loosen up but she knew they would have to take baby steps. She had just closed her eyes when she felt the other side of the bed shift, she knew Derek was beside her and that made her sleep like a baby.

Lynne quietly stood from her bed, still looking for the missing couple around the room but no sign of them. Tiptoeing to the stairs she figured they had to be there. Reaching the second level she glanced up and down the hall trying to look in the rooms. Lynne was about to give up when she noticed one door was cracked open. Trying to be stealthy she walked to the door to look inside. She couldn't hold in a gasp seeing Michelle and Derek in the same bed together. She immediately regretted it seeing Michelle pop up in the bed. Lynne was trying to hold in laughter as she saw Michelle come towards the door. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you when I woke up, I had no idea you were...getting it on with Mr. Hale," She snickered.

"Ok, if you can't already tell my clothes are still on." Michelle whispered quietly shutting the door behind her. "And there was no other place to sleep."

Lynne giggled again. "I'm gonna believe that for a couple seconds, but I highly doubt you wouldn't do it with him if you had the chance."

Michelle felt the heat go to her face making her head drop. "Do you know your socks don't match?"

Lynne punched her friend's arm. "Don't change the subject!" She yelled before slapping a hand to her mouth.

"Well let's go see everyone since you just woke them up," Michelle laughed walking over to the stairs.

In the living room Taylor heard Michelle and Lynne's voices but she didn't want to open her eyes just yet. She couldn't believe she was laying so close to Stiles, she had never slept better. If it wasn't for him she wasn't sure she would be able to sleep after her near death experience. His slight snoring made her smile as she opened her blue eyes. Stiles' arms wrapped protectively around her waist, their legs intertwined. Yeah, she could stay like this for a while but she felt someone poke her in the shoulder. "Hey, you awake?" She heard Michelle ask.

"Now I am," She whispered glancing behind her at her friends then back at Stiles. Quietly she rolled over on her side, Stiles' arms seemed to pull her tighter against his chest. "What are you guys doing?"

"I think you should ask Michelle what _she _was doing." Lynne giggled taking a seat in front of the couch earning an evil look for her friend.

"What are y'all talking about?"

"All of you were asleep and me and Derek just went to bed. Case closed." Michelle explained running her hands over face.

"'Went to bed?'" Taylor gasped with a big smile on her face.

"Not like that!" Michelle exclaimed throwing her hands up.

Taylor felt Stiles stir behind her. "What's going on?" He groaned.

Lynne saw Scott waking up as well. He looked confused seeing an empty spot beside him. "Where did...?" He mumbled then saw the group sitting together at the couch. "Hey."

"Hey yourself," Lynne smiled. "Come over here."

Scott ran a hand through his mussed hair as he plopped down beside his girlfriend. "What did I miss?" He asked looking at everyone.

"Yeah, I'm wondering that too." Stiles coughed as he and Taylor sat up on the couch.

"Oh we were just talking about Michelle and her new beau." Lynne laughed resting her head on Scott's shoulder.

"Guys, I know its pretty obvious I like him, but I'm not trying to push him into anything. Especially right now when we have all this going on." Michelle sighed pulling her light brown hair up into a ponytail. "Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing will but right now I'm just a little scared to do anything about it."

Taylor gave her friend a small smile. "Ok after everything all of us have been through you two are so much closer than I think he's been with anyone in a long time."

Michelle nodded resting her arms on her knees. Unknown to the group Derek was standing right outside the room hearing every word. He knew it was true, thinking to himself everything was true. Michelle had been the first person he actually gotten close to since the fire. She was also the first girl he had romantic interest in since Kate, the girl who pretty much used him to find out secrets about his family. He kept having this nagging voice in his head asking him if Michelle could be like that too? He silenced that voice knowing this whole world was completely new to her, just like it was for the other girls. Them knowing the werewolf secret still unnerved him.

After hearing the room go quiet he decided to make his entrance. "I didn't know my house was going to be a hotel." He announced stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Stiles chuckled rubbing his head. "We'll be on our way soon."

"How are you feeling?" Derek asked glancing at Taylor as he stepped up behind Michelle.

"Back to normal, thank you again for the save." She smiled fixing Michelle's 'Beacon Hills Track & Field' sweatshirt that she borrowed.

Derek nodded. "Look I know you girls really want to go to this prom but I just keep thinking its probably not the best idea."

All the girls' faces fell, Lynne stood from her spot on the floor. "Ok, I know I'm new to this whole 'werewolf' thing but I do know this Samuel guy wants a fight and if he doesn't find you guys at the dance then he's not going to stop til he finds you."

Scott smirked at his girlfriend, he liked the fact that she didn't back down to Derek. "Derek she's right, plus if we're all together we have more of a chance against him."

Derek shook his head, sighing he glanced down at Michelle who was already staring at him. He already knew where she stood with this prom situation. "Fine, you can go but you better keep an eye out for Samuel or his pack."

"Wait, are you going?" Michelle asked.

Derek glanced at the floor then back to the girl who was nervously waiting for his answer. "I'll think about it," He muttered. "Now don't all of you have parents waiting for you to get home?"

Taylor glanced at Stiles' phone. "It's 9 o' clock."

"Yeah we better get going. Thanks again for letting us crash." Stiles sighed grabbing his jacket form the back of the couch.

Michelle waited for everyone to clear out of the living room before walking closer to Derek. "So maybe I'll see you later?"

"Maybe," He sighed. "I'm probably gonna patrol later tonight."

"So I'll see you from my window." She smiled. "Bye, Derek."

When Taylor got home she had to talk to her parents about why her cell phone mysteriously disappeared. She told them it fell out of her pocket when she was running with Michelle, but in reality it was probably somewhere at the bottom of the river. "Why are you wearing two different pairs of sweats?" Her dad asked sitting in his recliner.

"Oh, uh, when we were running I tripped and fell in this huge puddle." She chuckled. "I didn't have any spare clothes and I didn't really want to come all the way home so Michelle and Lynne let me borrow some." Well, that was _almost _the truth.

"Ok, we'll order you a new phone later today." Her mom sighed picking up the morning newspaper. "And the prom dress you ordered came in this morning. I put in your room."

Taylor nodded. "Thanks mom, I'm gonna go take a shower." She said quickly running to the staircase. In her room, sitting on her bed was a brown cardboard box. Walking over to her desk she pulled out a pair of metal scissors from the drawer. Cutting the tape on top of the box she saw tissue paper on top of her dream dress. Smiling she pulled it out, a white, strapless, sequined dress. Even though she went shopping with her friends, this dress was always in the back of her mind. She had ordered it weeks ago but was worried it wouldn't come in time. Looking in her full length mirror she held the dress up, she knew prom wasn't going to be the way she originally planned but hopefully her and Stiles would have one dance.

At Lynne's house she was laying on her bed searching the internet for cheap but pretty prom dresses. So far she found one that she kind of liked. "There is no way I'm going to find a dress one week before prom." She sighed running her hands through her hair.

"Lynne!" She heard her mom call from down the hall.

"Coming!" Lynne yelled back shutting her laptop.

She found her mom going through her older sister's closet. Lynne's sister moved out right after she graduated, the room was now being used as an office but there was still some leftover clothes. "Hey, I might have found you a dress." Her mom explained picking up a few hangers.

"I didn't really like Elyse's dress though," Lynne mumbled crossing her arms.

Her mom chuckled. "Well what you didn't know was your sister bought three or four dresses for prom before she finally settled on that one."

Lynne scratched her head. "Wait, then why didn't she return them?"

"I asked her the same thing, she just said she wanted to keep them. Anyway between these four you should be able to find _one _you like."

"Ok." She muttered walking over to the closet. Fumbling through old easter dresses, a graduation gown, and a few winter jackets her eye caught on a red dress. "Wow," She whispered pulling it out from the back of the closet.

Holding it up to see it better Lynne smiled. It was an empire waist, with what looked like cut glass stones on the bodice and along the spaghetti straps. It was perfect. "Mom! I love this one!" She smiled hugging the dress running to her mom.

Sighing to herself Michelle searched another rack of dresses. She was pretty sure she got the leftovers of the mall in front of her. Either the dress didn't fit, was too slutty, or was just plain ugly. Michelle had never been one for shopping so she was not enjoying this experience, usually she had Taylor and Lynne helping her but it was her bright idea to shop for dresses on their own. Muttering a few cuss words under her breath she grabbed a sky blue dress on a rack by itself. She checked the tag, it was actually in her size. 'Maybe this will be all right.' She thought walking back into the changing room she had taken over for the past hour.

Michelle's eyes widened seeing her reflection in the mirror. When she stepped out of her changing room a sales woman said it was a Grecian style dress, a floral strap crossed over the bust to decorate the front. "I'll take it," Michelle smiled.

At school Monday Stiles found Taylor at her locker. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Great, my dress came in yesterday," She smiled grabbing a white notebook.

Stiles gave her a weird look. "Your prom dress? I thought you and your friends went shopping for one."

"We did, I kind of already had a dress ordered. So you want to know what you have to wear?"

"As long as its not bright pink I'm fine." He chuckled. "Walk you to class?"

"I'll like that."

In Lynne's Current Events class she was concentrating on a blank sheet of notebook paper when she heard footsteps come up to the seat beside her. She smiled knowing who it was. "Hey," She smiled seeing Scott's familiar dark head of hair placing his bag on the back of his chair.

"Hey you," He smirked leaning over to give her a kiss. "So me and Stiles are going to our tux fittings today after school."

"Great, so I'll be at work by myself," Lynne chuckled. "I already found my dress, how do you feel about red?"

"If that's the color you want its fine with me."

"Very good answer, my friend." She whispered hearing their teacher shut the classroom door trying to get his class' attention.

Michelle was sitting in the school's library staring at a supposed to be essay for her Physics class but so far all she had typed was her name. She glanced around the room to find her teacher, she finally found him leaning down helping another student. Reaching into her bag on the blue carpeted floor she grabbed her phone. She typed a text message to Derek. 'Have you made your mind up yet?' She asked hitting send.

She made sure the phone was on vibrate before setting it in her lap out of sight from anyone. It didn't take long for her to get a reply. 'Not yet.' The text read. Michelle grumbled making the girl next to her give her a weird look. "Sorry," Michelle whispered quickly looking back down at her phone.

'Look, I know a high school dance doesn't sound like the most fun thing but...' She paused trying to figure out what to say. 'I would like it if you came.' Without losing her nerve she hit send.

She didn't receive a reply which made her stomach drop. When the bell rang she exited out of Word and snatched up her bag from the floor. Michelle was about to throw her phone into a wall when she noticed one new text message. Her smile grew rereading the words over again. 'I'll go. For you.'

"Hey, what are you smiling at?" Lynne asked as she and Taylor approached their gleaming friend.

"Oh nothing," She laughed. "But I just may have a prom date after all."

"Really? Who?" Taylor exclaimed.

Michelle blushed. Taylor and Lynne looked at each other. "Derek." They both smiled. "So what are you going to do about a dress?"

"Oh, uh, I already have my dress." She mumbled rubbing the back of her neck.

"Me too." Taylor said.

"Me three." Lynne laughed. "Well, great, I guess we're all set."

"Let's just hope prom is something we'll actually want to remember." Taylor muttered looping her arms with her two best friends.

The rest of the week passed slowly. Derek, Scott, and Stiles kept their nightly patrol, making sure each girl was safe. Each felt some apprehension seeing the moon every night, witnessing it get closer and closer to being full. Before they knew it prom was was upon them. That morning each girl had to do their own routine to be ready that night. Lynne was eating a green apple as her sister worked feverishly trying to get her sisters hair to curl. "Ow! Elyse, that's skin not hair!" Lynne exclaimed almost choking on her apple.

"Sorry!" Elyse laughed grabbing a light pink comb from the counter. "So who are you going with tonight anyway?"

"Scott McCall, I thought you knew that."

"No, I didn't know you or your friends had dates. I can't believe they're even still having the prom after what happened at the spring carnival."

Lynne felt a twinge inside her, now that she knew Scott's secret and what happened during the carnival she realized how much danger she was in and she didn't even know it at the time. "Yeah, well, I guess its going to be ok." She whispered playing with some bobby pins.

Taylor was having her own hair troubles. Since her hair was naturally straight and sometimes had a mind of its own she had to work extra hard for it to cooperate the way she wanted it to. "Tay, Michelle's here." She heard her dad call from downstairs.

"Ok, tell her to come up." She yelled back putting most of her hair up into a hair clip on top of her head. "Hey, how did it go at the salon?"

Michelle did not look happy as she threw her bag onto Taylor's bed. "The lady did not listen to what I wanted."

"What do you mean?"

Michelle pointed to her head. "I wanted a simple updo, she went crazy with a curling iron then pinned all my hair up...and I think I'm losing circulation to my brain its so tight."

Taylor laughed. "Ok, come here and let me see if I can fix it."

Michelle groaned plopping down on the white stool Taylor kept in her bathroom. She flinched when she felt the bobby pins being pulled from her head. "Ow! You know my hair is attached right?" She exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that." Taylor mumbled placing the bobby pins on the counter. "Have you heard from Derek?"

"I tried calling him this morning but no answer. I think he just wants to avoid the penguin suit thing."

"He said he's coming so he's coming, this whole prom thing is probably just new to him."

"Yeah, you're right." Michelle mumbled feeling her hair fall on her shoulders. "So what are you doing anyway?"

"I am making sure you look hot for Derek tonight," Taylor smirked. "Just trust me."

Scott groaned hearing someone come into his room. "Go away, Stiles." He mumbled into his pillow.

"Its not Stiles," Melissa laughed. "Come on, lazy, wake up."

Scott sat up rubbing his eyes. "What's up?"

"I thought you might want this." She smiled holding a plastic box with a corsage inside.

Scott grabbed the box from her hands. "I knew I was forgetting something." He whispered opening the lid. Inside were small red and white roses with white ribbon. "Thanks mom."

"No problem, when you told me you were going to Lynne I was really happy for you. She seems like a great girl."

"She is, I didn't think anyone would pull me out of that place I was at when Allison left but Lynne stuck around."

"Well you have fun tonight, don't do something reckless, though." Melissa warned walking out of the room.

"I can't promise that," Scott muttered closing the box again.

He picked up his phone from his bedside table. Dialing Stiles' number he remembered he didn't know what time they had to pick the girls up. "Stiles pick up," He groaned running a hand over his face.

"Hey, I was about to call you, have you heard from Derek?" Stiles asked.

"No, why?"

"Well I mean I thought he was going tonight but I haven't heard from him." He explained fumbling with his white tie.

"I kinda thought he was coming too, I'll go by his house to see what's up."

"All right, well we gotta pick the girls up at 5:30, then its pictures, food, and finally prom."

"Ok, well I'll see you later, I'm gonna go see Derek first."

"Ok, bye." Stiles said before hanging up. He was still having trouble figuring out how to tie his tie.

Michelle was mumbling curse words as she felt Taylor pull and pin her hair into place. "Are you done yet?" She asked.

"Almost," Taylor muttered as she held three bobby pins between her lips. She was having a hard enough fixing her own hair, now she had to pretty much fight Michelle while helping her out. "Ok done, check it out."

Michelle's eyes widened looking at her hair. "Wow, Tay," She smiled. She had a few curled pieces of hair falling in her face but the rest was pinned back in a loose bun but the way Taylor pinned it her hair wasn't going to fall. "Thank you."

"No problem, now we have two hours before the guys pick us up, I haven't done anything yet, and Lynne's still not here."

"Yes, I am," They heard.

Taylor sighed in relief seeing her friend standing in the doorway. She had her dress in one hand, her makeup bag in the other. "I'm sorry it took so long, Elyse was doing my hair." She sighed hanging her dress up in the doorway.

Lynne's hair was down and curled, on her left side her hair was pinned back with a flower hair clip. "Well it looks pretty." Michelle smiled.

"Thanks, I'm pretty sure I inhaled a whole bottle of hairspray fumes to get it like this though." Lynne laughed. "Your hair looks nice too."

"Thank you, its courtesy of Taylor. I'm never going to a salon again." Michelle said. "All I need is makeup."

"Ok, well I'll help you with that." Lynne smiled tossing her makeup bag onto Taylor's bed.

"While y'all do that I'll fix my hair." Taylor sighed. "It sucks being a girl sometimes." She mumbled grabbing her hair curlers.

Scott stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets as he walked up to the Hale property. He noticed Derek's car sitting out front as he made his way closer to the house he saw Derek sitting on the front porch. "Hey," Scott called. "I wanted to ask you something?"

"What?" Derek asked looking at his hands.

Scott sighed kicking a leaf with his foot. "Are you going to prom tonight?"

"I was thinking about it." He muttered. "Someone needs to make sure everything is all right."

"You don't trust me and Stiles?"

"Its not that, its...Samuel always wanted the Hales dead all those years ago. He's going to know he would have lost back then and he sure as hell going to lose tonight."

"So you're coming?"

"I am, but I'm not going in a limo with you guys, I'll make my own entrance."

"Does Michelle know that?" Scott asked as Derek stood and walked into his house.

Lynne was applying eyeliner to Michelle's top eyelids when she asked. "So how's Derek feeling about tonight?"

"I don't know." Michelle mumbled. She was beginning to wonder why she let her friend talk her into letting her do her makeup. "I haven't heard from him."

Taylor was finishing up putting the last roller in her hair when she checked her phone. "You don't think he changed his mind do you?"

Michelle fell silent. 'I hope not.' She thought standing from her spot on the stool, sighing she opened her eyes to check herself in the mirror. "Wow, I do look pretty good if I do say so myself." She laughed eyeing her makeup. Lynne had used a white shimmer with a charcoal color to give her a dramatic smoky eye.

"All you need is lip gloss and you're done." Lynne smiled going through her bag to find her foundation. "Put that on at the last minute."

Michelle nodded walking out of the bathroom to Taylor's bed. Looking back to see if her friends were paying attention, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. No calls or texts from Derek. She had officially lost hope that he was coming. And she felt stupid for believing he would in the first place.

An hour later the girls were ready, all they had to do was put their dresses on. They decided to go in separate rooms in Taylor's house to get dressed. "Ok are y'all ready?" Lynne called inspecting herself in the mirror.

"Ready!" Michelle yelled.

"Ok, one the count of three," Taylor called. "One...two...three!"

All at once the doors opened and the girls stepped out with smiles on their faces. "Red, white, and blue." Michelle smiled as they walked towards each other.

"And we didn't even plan it." Taylor laughed making sure the bobby pins holding her hair were secure. She decided to put her bangs in a side braid pinned at the back of her ear. The rest of her hair was in loose curls bouncing as she walked.

"Well let's go take pictures. We look too good right now." Lynne smirked looping her arms through her friends.

Stiles was buttoning up his black shirt when his dad walked in. "Wow, you clean up pretty good." He chuckled.

"Thanks," Stiles muttered grabbing his tie off his desk. "Can you help? I can never get these things right."

"Sure," Sheriff Stilinski said walking over to his son. "Too bad you're mother's not here."

Stiles nodded his head. He never really liked talking about his late mother. He always brushed the subject off if it was ever brought up. Looking back down he noticed his dad had the tie perfect in no time. "Now why can't I do that?" He exclaimed as he dad stepped away.

"Just takes practice, son." He smiled. "Have fun tonight...but not too much."

"Ok, dad." Stiles sighed knowing his dad had no idea what could go on at prom.

Twenty five pictures later the girls were sitting in Taylor's living room waiting for their dates. Michelle kept checking her phone silently hoping for a text or call from Derek, just some kind of reassurance that he was coming. But it never came. Finally the doorbell rang, Taylor smiled as her dad went to answer it. "Girls, I'm pretty sure these guys are here for you." He announced making Taylor shake her head.

"Coming," The girls smiled standing from their seats, silently they asked how each other looked before walking out of the living room.

Scott and Stiles stood nervously outside on Taylor's front porch, their dates corsages in their hands. Taylor's dad kept sending cold stares Stiles' way to which he bowed his head away. "Coming," They heard from another room in the house to their relief.

Their eyes lit up seeing their girlfriends walking towards them. "Hey you," Taylor whispered her blue eyes sparkling at Stiles.

"Uh...hey," He stammered. "You look...great."

"You don't look too bad yourself." She laughed holding her wrist out for him to put her corsage on.

"Hey Lynne," Scott smiled holding out her corsage. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you, and I have to say, you clean up pretty good too."

As Michelle watched her friends with their dates she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. She crossed her arms as they posed for couple's pictures. Sure, she was happy for them but she wanted her own happy prom memories and she couldn't help but feel she wasn't going to get them.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: It Ends Here

Beacon Hills had settled on a Mardi Gras theme, the gym was decorated with green, purple, and yellow everywhere. Tables along the sides with neon lights over the dance floor. Michelle found herself sitting at one of the round tables, she had her phone in front of her. She kept willing for it to light up with a text from Derek. Sighing she played with a loose thread on the purple table cloth. Looking around the crowded gymnasium she saw Scott and Lynne dancing together with a blaring Ke$ha song playing over the speakers. Stiles and Taylor posed in a traditional couple's pose under a black and white checkered arch with huge masks on it.

Michelle gulped down the last of her Dr. Pepper before rising from her seat. They had only been at the dance for half an hour and she already felt like leaving. Tossing the plastic cup in the trash she walked towards the gym's metal doors. Flicking a piece of hair out of her face she leaned on the brick wall. Looking down at her phone there was still nothing. "Your date not show up?" Someone asked beside her.

Michelle was about to chew this guy out when a pair of familiar eyes caught her attention. "Derek?" She whispered.

Derek stood in front of her wearing a plain black and white tux without a tie, he left the top two buttons unbuttoned letting her see a little bit of his sculpted chest. "You know you're late." Michelle smirked walking towards him.

"Yeah, I kind of figured." He sighed scratching the back of his neck. "Did you think I wasn't coming?"

"Doesn't matter, you're here now." She gleamed slightly hugging his side.

"You look...beautiful." He whispered looking over her whole appearance.

"Thank you, I never thought I would see you in a tux," Michelle laughed hesitantly taking his hand. She was happily surprised when he grasped hers in return.

Without another word they walked hand and hand into the dance. As they passed through the double doors they earned several stares from students and faculty alike. Derek kept his eyes straight, ignoring everything around him, except for Michelle. They made their way onto the dance floor just as the song 'A Thousand Years' by Christina Perry started playing. Michelle noticed her friends dancing close by. Smiling she wrapped her arms around Derek's neck as he placed his on her waist. Taylor looked over Stiles' shoulder to see Michelle and Derek dancing together. Gleaming she got Stiles to glance behind him. "He actually showed up," He whispered.

Taylor smiled seeing Michelle so happy. "Good thing he did, or he would have had someone else to worry about other than Samuel."

Stiles frowned. "I actually almost forgot about Samuel." He mumbled his arms tightening around her waist. "I wonder when he'll make his appearance."

Taylor shook her head, her blonde curls falling on her shoulders. Just then a blaring Justin Bieber song came over the speakers breaking all the couples apart. "I'm going to get us something to drink." Stiles yelled over the music.

Taylor nodded walking over to her friends who had sat down at their table. "I just put my foot in my mouth." She sighed plopping down beside Lynne.

"What did you say?" Michelle asked looking over to see Derek standing with Scott and Stiles.

"I accidently mentioned Samuel and kind of killed the mood." Taylor explained fumbling with her charm bracelet.

"Ouch," Lynne cringed. "Do you think he'll actually show up or he's just bluffing?"

The girls didn't answer, even though all of then were praying for the second option. They were snapped from their thoughts hearing a group of jocks yell over the music. The boys returned to their dates with drinks in hand, Derek seemed a little uncomfortable to Michelle. "Hey, you ok?" She whispered resting her hand on his upper arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He muttered. "This is the first time I've really been in a big crowd since the fire."

"I understand, so if you need a breather just let me know." She smiled trying to ease his stress. He gave her a slight smile in return making her grin.

Scott shrugged off his jacket glancing at Lynne who had a slightly worried look on her face. "Hey, what's wrong?" He asked his hand slightly brushing her shoulder.

Lynne sighed grabbing his hand, leading him into the school's hallway. "It's kind of hard trying to have a good time when a murderous psychopath is on his way."

"Look, I know this isn't going to be the prom you originally thought of but I don't want you to worry about this. Its mine and Derek's problem, and I know we're not going to let anything happen to you or the others."

When he still saw sadness in her eyes he took her in his arms. "I promise, nothing is going to happen to you."

"That's not what I'm worried about." Lynne muttered pushing against his chest.

Scott cocked his head to the side, what was she worried about? Lynne sighed crossing her arms. "I'm worried...what if something happens to you?" She whispered. "I mean, that guy threw Taylor in a river thinking she was going to die. And he even killed his alpha to get what he wanted. What if you get hurt...or even worse?"

Now he understood. Silently Scott stepped forward to put his arms on her shoulders. "Hey," He mumbled trying to get her to look up at him. Gently he pushed her chin up with his finger. "Nothing is going to happen to me."

"Promise?" She asked hugging him tightly.

Scott chuckled slightly. "I promise."

Back inside the gym Jackson Whittemore was making his entrance into the dance. He had Lydia on his arm and a cocky look on his face. Michelle and Taylor were the first ones to notice him. "Derek." Michelle whispered hitting his shoulder.

Derek's jaw clenched seeing Jackson, apparently Jackson saw him at the same time. "If he's here, does that mean the rest of the pack is here too?" Stiles asked the alpha.

"I don't know, go find Scott and Lynne." Derek commanded.

Stiles nodded standing up from his seat. When he saw a worried look in his date's eyes he leaned down to give her a quick kiss. "I'll be right back." He muttered soft enough for only her to hear before walking in the direction Scott and Lynne went.

Michelle glanced at Taylor to Derek. "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing yet, I'm going to wait til you girls are all together then get you to a safe location."

"Derek, we're not leaving you alone to face them." Michelle snapped with a determined look on her face.

"Don't fight me on this," He growled. "He will _kill _you if he gets the chance. I can't give him that chance."

Michelle glanced at Taylor. "We're not defenseless girls, we can help."

"What are you going to do? Hit a werewolf with your purse?" Derek asked looking at the girls.

Just then Stiles returned with Scott and Lynne right behind him. "What's going on?" Lynne asked.

"What's going on is you and the other girls are going to hide somewhere, we'll scout out a safe place, while me and the guys are going to fight the pack."

"Wait, what do you mean we're going to hide?" Lynne scoffed. "Why can't we help?"

"Lynne, it's in your best interest just to let us handle it." Scott whispered trying to comfort his girlfriend.

"No, I'm not some princess that needs rescue." She glanced down at Taylor. "Sorry."

Taylor shook her head looking down at her hands sitting on her lap. "Tay, what's wrong?" Stiles asked putting his hands on his girlfriend's shoulders.

"It's just..." She started but her lips formed a line before she opened her mouth. "Guys, this guy has no mercy whatsoever. I've seen it. Derek's right, what can we do? As much as I hate sitting on the sideline while they fight, I think that's really all we can do." She explained sitting her hands on top of Stiles.'

Finally her friends nodded their heads. They knew they weren't going to win this argument, they knew they all had protective boyfriends and they weren't going to give up til they knew their girls were safe. "Ok, Scott, you and Stiles go find a place for them to hide. I'll scout around the property." Derek commanded taking Michelle's hand.

Scott nodded as Lynne grabbed onto his arm. Stiles wrapped his arm around Taylor's shoulders as they walked to the hallway entrance. Michelle looked up at her date with a sad look in her eye, Derek's jaw clenched knowing she wasn't into this plan. Without a second thought Michelle wrapped her arms around his torso. She breathed in his musky scent but was afraid he wouldn't hug her back. She sighed in relief feeling his strong arms wrap around her. "Be careful." She whispered.

"I will," He said reassuringly. "Promise me you won't put yourself or your friends into danger. Stay hidden."

Michelle reluctantly nodded. "I promise."

"Now go," He gently commanded releasing her. Michelle sighed slightly pulling the bottom of her dress up so she could run towards her friends. Turning back to look at him one more time she smiled and gave him a small wave. To her delight, he waved back.

Michelle found the group standing in the hallway trying to figure out where the best hiding spot would be. Michelle stood next to Taylor as the boys tried opening classroom doors. "Locked." Stiles muttered walking back towards them.

Lynne glanced around hearing 'Shawty Get Loose' coming from the gym. She wondered if a chaperone was going to find them in the hallway. "What about the locker room?" She asked Scott. She remembered he forgot his bag in there one day before he went over to her house. He told her that the doors were never locked, something about Coach never remembered locking them when he left every night.

"We can try that." Scott said taking her hand leading them down the hall.

Going through several corridors they were almost at the locker room doors when they heard someone behind them. Turning around they saw a dark shadowy figure approaching them. "Derek?" Michelle asked walking towards it.

The figure didn't say anything, just kept stalking towards the group. "Michelle, I don't think that's Derek," Taylor whispered following her friend.

"Who else could it be?" Michelle snapped.

Just when she was a few feet away from the stranger it growled and jumped towards her. Hearing her friend scream Taylor grabbed Michelle's arm jerking her back. "Run!" Lynne exclaimed as they hurried to the locker room doors.

"Scott what are you doing?" Stiles asked watching the girls run away.

"I'll hold him off, you go make sure they're safe." Scott growled his eyes shifting to their golden yellow color, his teeth sharpening.

Stiles nodded running after the girls. He knew Scott could handle himself, he didn't have to worry about him. He was more concerned about his girlfriend and her friends. The girls were huddle together in the locker room. "What the hell was that?" Lynne exclaimed digging her nails into Michelle's arms. "And where's Scott?"

"He's holding it off, giving us some time." Stiles explained running a hand over his head. "Ok, I gotta go help him."

"Stiles, what are you talking about?" Taylor asked walking over to him. "I love you for wanting to help but what can you really do?"

Stiles smirked pulling her close. "Don't worry about me, I have my ways." He said into her hair. "And you just said you loved me."

Taylor blushed and looked back at her friends who had smirks on their faces. "Maybe I did."

Stiles kissed her. "I'll be back, and I don't care what goes on but you three stay in here. Ok?"

The girls nodded. Taylor frowned crossing her arms. "You better be careful or I'm kicking your ass."

Stiles chuckled. "I will." He whispered rubbing her upper arm before closing the door behind him.

Lynne grabbed a broom and pulled it through the locker room door handles making a makeshift lock. "So now what do we do?" She asked.

"We wait, and pray that they're going to be ok." Michelle sighed sitting down on one of the wooden benches.

Scott launched himself off the floor at the other beta who anticipated his attack. Punches were thrown as they got face to face. Scott growled slashing at the werewolf's head, but his punch was dodged. Stiles was running back towards his friend trying to figure out some ways to help. He gasped when he heard a crash come from the other side of the hallway. "Oh my God," Stiles whispered seeing a huge gaping hole in the windows at the end of the hall. "Scott!"

Stiles ran as fast as he could, the broken glass cutting up the bottom of his shoes. Down on the grass was the other beta. No sign of Scott. "Stiles," He heard from behind him.

"Scott, oh my God, don't do that!" Stiles snapped seeing his friend walk out of the dark corridor of the hall. He noticed Scott's white dress shirt torn up, his tie barely hanging onto his neck. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine" He sighed feeling his bare chest. "He was a new fighter, he barely knew what he was doing." Scott explained looking down at the grass seeing the beta start to rise. "Come on, he's getting up."

Stiles nodded as they ran to the staircase. Taking them two at a time they ran as fast as they could to an exit. They saw Derek waiting for them up ahead. "Are they safe?" He asked stripping off his jacket.

"Yeah, they're in the locker room." Scott answered. "Did you find Samuel anywhere?"

"No, but I did see a beta run around here somewhere. I lost track of him while I looked for you two."

Scott held his arms out. "Yeah, I kind of ran into him."

"Come on, I have a feeling I know where they'll be." Stiles sighed as they started walking towards the lacrosse field.

Lynne was pacing the locker room but she stopped seeing one locker in particular. Number eleven. She ran her hand over the jersey. "Ok, I can't just sit here." She exclaimed.

Taylor's head shot up. "What do you mean?" She asked fumbling with her bracelet again, a habit she developed whenever she was nervous.

"I mean, I can't just sit here knowing my boyfriend is out there fighting some psycho werewolf and his groupies."

"Lynne, Scott can handle himself." Michelle sighed crossing her arms.

"I know he can, but still...I hate feeling helpless."

Taylor looked down at her hands sitting on her lap. "I understand, trust me," She whispered. Michelle came up to sit beside her friend.

"You ok?" She asked slightly poking Taylor in the shoulder.

"Not really," She sighed. "I'm worried about Stiles, I mean Scott and Derek can handle themselves. Stiles is human, they were worried about us so much, what is he doing to protect himself?"

Stiles ran to their limo, luckily still parked in the school's parking lot. Glancing up in the driver's seat, he saw no sign of their chauffeur. Stiles climbed in the back to where he had something hidden. Scott didn't even know that Allison's dad, before the Argent family left, had given him one of their special weapons. A gun that they used against Derek when he was shot in the arm, Stiles shivered remembering he was almost forced to cut Derek's arm cut off. His hand touched the cold metal of the gun, making him flinch a little but he grabbed the handle of it. Pulling it out he smirked, he had never practiced shooting it but Mr. Argent gave him a few pointers before they left. He said to conserve the bullets as much as he could and aim for vital spots on your opponents body.

He also remembered what Derek instructed him to bring earlier that night. When they were discussing the betas and how to restrain them, Stiles was told to bring Wolfsbane since he was really the only one that was able to touch the flower. Beside the gun was his leather backpack filled with the purple flower.

Scott saw Stiles running from their limo parked on the other side of the lot. Looking around to make sure the area was clear he ran to meet him halfway. "Stiles, what the hell is that?" Scott exclaimed seeing the silver and black gun in his friend's hand. "And why do you need your backpack?

"Uh," Stiles stammered. "Allison's dad kind of gave me a gift before they moved. Remember when Derek got shot? You had to find that special bullet to help him." Stiles sort of brushed off the second question, hanging onto the leather strap of his bag.

"Yeah, so that's the gun that they shot Derek with?"

"No, but it holds those kind of bullets. I knew tonight I would need it so I stashed in the limo when we got picked up." Stiles explained the street lights in the parking lot shining against the gun. "Speaking of Derek where is he?"

"He went back in the gym to see if Jackson was still there, I haven't seen him since then."

"Scott, Stiles!" They heard Derek call from across the parking lot.

"There he is, come on." Scott said hitting Stiles in the arm. "Watch where you shoot that thing tonight." He mumbled gesturing to the gun.

Stiles nodded ask they made their way to the alpha wolf. "Was Jackson in there?" He asked.

"No, neither was his date we saw earlier, it was like neither of them had arrived. I didn't see any members of the pack either." Derek explained. "If they were going to attack us they would have already done it."

"Well one did, and we still haven't find out where he went." Scott pointed out, his tattered shirt blowing in the night air like a cape behind him.

Derek's eyebrows furrowed. "Come on, we need to keep moving."

Scott and Stiles nodded following him through the dark lot. Weaving through the cars parked all around, some not even in real parking spots. "Stiles!" They heard.

Coming out of the darkness they saw a girl wearing a black and white prom dress. Then they noticed the girls fiery red hair. "Lydia." Stiles whispered glancing back at Scott who had his eyes fixed on the red head. "What are you doing?" He asked hiding his gun behind his back hoping the girl didn't see it.

"I came looking for you," She smiled her lip gloss sparkling. "Jackson ditched me. I was hoping we could go back to the dance together."

Stiles shook his head, looking down at the pavement. "No, I can't. You go on, I'm sure Jackson will turn up eventually."

Lydia scoffed. "I don't understand, you were all about me last semester. What happened?"

Stiles sighed clenching the gun tighter. "I got a girlfriend, now I really have to go. You should go back to the gym." He said walking back towards Scott and Derek.

Lydia couldn't believe it. Sighing she trudged back to the gym just as Stiles instructed. She would just have to find another guy to make Jackson jealous.

As the boys walked to the lacrosse field Derek's eyes kept scanning the area, anything that moved caught his attention. Any sound, a shadow that moved through the cars, his breath hitched. Finally they heard something crash into a car close to them. "What was that?" Scott asked.

"I don't know," Derek whispered. "Be prepared for anything." Then he heard someone running towards them. "Look out." He growled jumping up on a car.

Stiles and Scott's eyes widened seeing Derek catch the beta by his throat throwing him down on the black Honda. Derek snarled seeing the beta shift back to normal. "It's Joseph." Scott announced seeing the unconscious teen.

"Samuel obviously didn't teach his pack how to properly fight." Derek sighed stepping off the car.

"What are we going to do with him?" Stiles asked.

Derek sighed clenching and unclenching his fists. "Stiles, did you bring what I told you to bring?"

Stiles nodded putting his bag on the ground. "You guys might want to get away." He whispered opening it.

Scott looked at Derek and Stiles. "What am I missing?"

"I'll fill you in later. Come on." Derek snapped grabbing the younger beta's shoulder leading him away from Stiles.

Stiles sighed reaching into his backpack. When his hand grabbed one of the ropes he pulled it out as carefully as he could. Making sure the werewolf was still out Stiles wrapped the Wolfsbane around its wrists tight so they wouldn't fall off. He gasped when the beta woke up and tried to growl at him. When he tried to move his arms they felt like they were a hundred pounds. "What...what did you do to me?" Joseph whispered looking down at the flowers.

"You should really know your werewolf mythology," Stiles smirked grabbing his bag off the ground leaving the beta laying there.

When Stiles caught up to Derek and Scott he swung his backpack on his shoulder. Scott glanced at his best friend to the alpha wolf. "You told him to bring Wolfsbane?" He asked.

Derek nodded. "How much did you use?"

"Only one strand to restrain him, just strong enough to weaken him, but it won't kill him." Stiles sighed. "Look Scott, we didn't know how else to handle the betas. It was either kill otherwise innocent teenagers or just weaken them until Samuel is out of the picture."

Scott nodded looking back up at the school. "So our goal isn't to kill the betas."

"No," Derek muttered. "If it wasn't for Samuel then they wouldn't even know about werewolves nor would they be one. We only want to kill Samuel."

Scott and Stiles nodded their heads. "Ok, now let's get going." Derek sighed leading the way to the lacrosse field.

In the woods behind the field Samuel stood waiting for his pack to return. The moonlight illuminating the dark woods. He sensed Derek and his pack getting closer making his eyes narrow. Finally he heard his pack members walking up behind him. "They're coming." He whispered clenching his fists.

Jackson smirked, he had been waiting to fight Derek ever since he refused to give him the bite last semester. He still remembered that night all those months ago, Lydia was attacked, he thought she was going to die but turns out nothing changed about her, he saw with his own eyes Peter Hale burn and then Derek killed his own uncle. Later he returned to the Hale house, hoping to get what he had wanted but all Derek did was try and intimidate him then told him if he ever returned to the house he would suffer the same fate that Peter did. Ever since that night Jackson would watch Scott, knowing he had what Jackson wanted. What he would _kill _for.

Jackson was snapped from his thoughts hearing Samuel speak up. "Where's Joseph?" He asked his red eyes glowing in the night.

"We don't know," Antonio answered. "Last I saw him he was following them in the school."

Samuel growled, he knew one of these kids was going to ruin his plan. "Oh well, we go on without him." He snapped. "They are still outnumbered."

"What about the girls?" Kevin asked.

"What could they possibly do?" Samuel cackled. "If they come to the battle, kill them. Do whatever means necessary, get rid of them."

The boys nodded, their eyes shifting to their demonic color, glowing in the darkness. "Time to go." Samuel whispered his teeth sharpening seeing the other pack closing in on the lacrosse field.

The girls didn't know how long they had been sitting in the locker room. Time seemed to be at a stand still. Lynne took off her high heel shoes to keep pacing the floor trying to find anything to distract herself. Taylor leaned forward, resting her arms on her knees. Michelle stood and walked around the locker room, glancing around at the walls, posters with famous athletes to Beacon Hill's lacrosse teams over the years. She cried out tripping over something.

"Michelle, you all right?" She heard her friends ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She grumbled pushing herself up off the cold floor. "I can't believe I actually wore high heels." Wondering what she tripped over she saw a long crosse, or the stick that lacrosse players used. Picking it up she narrowed her eyes. "Ok, I don't know about you guys but I can't sit here anymore."

Taylor glanced at Lynne then to Michelle. "I agree but do you really think a...pole is going to stop a werewolf?"

"I'm not for sure but its better than being totally defenseless." Michelle sighed holding the stick with both hands. "Look, I know you guys feel the same way. Its not really like us to just sit around and...and just do nothing."

"She's right," Lynne muttered crossing her arms.

Taylor nodded then smirked. "Well its going to take more than one stick."

The girls searched the locker room, hoping to find anything they could use against the werewolves. Taylor walked into the coach's office hoping to find anything. Sighing she saw nothing but stopped when she accidently bumped into a filing cabinet knocking over something. Her eyes caught on a metal baseball bat laying on the floor. "This could work," She whispered picking it up by the cold handle.

Lynne stomped over to the equipment cabinet. Slinging open the doors dodge balls, basketballs tumbled out. "Geez, when was the last time they cleaned this thing?" She grumbled fumbling through the sports equipment but she was unsuccessful. "Great, just great." Running a hand through her hair she remembered seeing Scott's locker. "Ok, Scott, please tell me you forgot your stick." She sighed running over to his locker.

Lucky for her she saw the lacrosse stick still sitting in the locker. "Thank you, boyfriend." Lynne smiled.

Derek held his hands out stopping Scott and Stiles behind him. "What's going on?" Stiles asked.

"Scott, do you see what I see?" Derek whispered his eyes narrowing at the woods.

Scott nodded. "They're coming."

Just as the boys noticed they were coming Samuel with his pack behind him emerged from the woods. Derek's eyes started to glow seeing the other alpha close in on them. They knew they were outnumbered but it wasn't by much. And no matter what, Samuel was going to die, and join the rest of his old pack. Samuel snarled seeing his opponents in front of him. "Attack," He growled to his pack.

Scott and Derek shifted seeing the others do the same. Stiles took a few steps back anticipating an attack. "Oh my God," He mumbled seeing Derek and Samuel go for each other.

Scott ran towards Jackson, trying to get in a good hit but Jackson seemed to be one step ahead of him. Whenever Scott swung Jackson dodged the attack. Jackson pushed against Scott's chest so hard he was launched back, his feet dragging the grass as he tried to stop.

Stiles' eyes widened seeing Antonio and Kevin approaching him. He gulped seeing them snarl and charge him. It happened so fast he quickly dodged one pair of claws, he gasped feeling the front of his shirt being torn. He tried to shoot the gun but the trigger seemed to be stuck. Stiles fell to the ground waiting for his death when he saw Kevin get hit by something in the head. He almost smirked seeing his girlfriend standing with her friends ten feet away. "Hey!" Taylor yelled. "If I were you, I would stay the hell away from my boyfriend."

Michelle and Lynne's eyes were the size of saucers seeing the werewolves in front of them. This wasn't a dream, and Taylor had just chucked her shoe at one of them. "Now's they're coming after us." Michelle whispered starting to back up.

"Yeah," Taylor muttered gripping the baseball bat tighter. "Split up!"

The girls exchanged glances before taking off in different directions. Lynne saw Scott up ahead, fighting with Jackson. Her bare feet barely touched the grass as she ran. When Jackson had his back turned she pulled back the lacrosse stick as far as she could and hit him in the back. It barely did anything and she made an audible gasp seeing Jackson turn his attention towards her. "Oh boy." She whispered feeling tears come to her eyes.

Lynne had managed to distract Jackson enough for Scott to attack. Scott growled as he launched himself tackling Jackson to the ground. With one punch he had the new beta out cold. Lynne's hand shot up to her mouth trying to steady her breathing. Her shaking hands dropped the stick catching Scott's attention. In a brief moment he phased back to normal to walk over to her. "What are you doing here?" He asked placing his hands on her shoulders.

"I...I just couldn't sit back knowing you were out here, fighting...them." She stammered digging her nails into his upper arm.

Scott pulled the girl into his arms. He could feel her start to calm down. "Shh, its ok," He muttered into her hair. Knowing they weren't safe yet he pushed her behind him. "Stay behind me."

Lynne nodded, biting her bottom lip. She looked around the field to see Taylor being chased by another one into the woods. "Oh my God, Taylor." She said grabbing onto Scott's shoulder.

Taylor weaved through the old oak trees. She could feel the rough ground scratch up the bottom of her feet but all she cared about was getting away. She hoped since one was chasing her Stiles was ok. Stopping to hide behind a tree she tried to catch her breath. Behind her she heard twigs snapping, they were close. Gripping the baseball bat tighter she swung at whatever came. Hearing the bat hit something solid she almost screamed. A hand shot up to her chest seeing Antonio laying on the ground, unmoving, the bat had made contact with its skull. "_That _was for throwing me in a river," She muttered stepping over the fallen werewolf.

Michelle saw Derek, she recognized the werewolf snarling at the similar one that she remembered attacked her all those weeks ago. For a brief moment she had a flashback to the fear she had back then. Now all she felt was anger, determination for him to be stopped. Even with her adrenaline pumping she still could not get her feet to budge from her spot. Then she saw Derek fall to the ground, a gash on his side. "Derek!" She screamed making the other alpha stare at her. She let out a scream seeing the alpha charge towards her, just like it had that night.

"Michelle get out of there!" She heard Lynne yell but she could still not move.

The sight of Samuel's eyes seemed to paralyze her. This was it, she was going to die in front of her friends, and the guy she had fallen for in the past couple weeks. Michelle's eyes closed waiting for the blow...but it never came. She heard a growl before she opened her eyes. In front of her was Derek, his teeth in a snarl. Taylor ran out of the woods towards Lynne and Scott. "Is that Derek?" She whispered hanging onto her friend's arm.

Lynne nodded her head. "What are we going to do?"

"Stay here," Scott commanded as he ran towards Derek. His yellow eyes fixed on Samuel.

Derek glanced back at Michelle, silently sending her a message saying 'Get out of here.' Michelle hesitantly stepped back away from the werewolves. Taylor and Lynne ran to meet her halfway. Together they watched Samuel's red eyes glow brighter as he stood on two legs, his monstrous build towered over Scott and Derek. "What's going on?" Lynne asked.

"They're not as powerful," Taylor gasped hanging onto her friend's arms.

Samuel swung hitting Derek and Scott knocking them off their feet. Lynne turned her back, hands covering her mouth. 'This is it,' She thought and she didn't want to witness it. "Leave them alone!" Michelle yelled stepping forward, her eyes fixed on Samuel.

Taylor gasped seeing Samuel turn his attention to the girls, he snarled and slowly made his way over to them. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Samuel's red, demonic eyes bored into their souls making them freeze. They huddled together saying a silent prayer for something to happen, someone to come to their rescue. Just as the alpha rared his arm back, knowing they wouldn't survive the blow he growled and swung. But a shot, a loud powerful blast stopped him. The girls opened their eyes to see Samuel phase back to his human form, a bullet hole in his stomach, blood seeping down to the grass. "Oh my God," Michelle whispered.

Behind Samuel was Stiles, clutching his gun tight, a slight smirk on his face. They all released a breath they weren't aware they were holding seeing Samuel fall to the ground. Very carefully the girls walked around the alpha, still clutching onto each other, their eyes never left the fallen wolf. Taylor ran into Stiles' arms, finally feeling safe while Michelle and Lynne ran to their boyfriends, both had phased back to normal. Lynne bent down to check on Scott. "Are you ok?" She exclaimed not caring if her dress was muddy, or her hair was a mess. All she cared about was Scott.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," He muttered sitting up on his forearms. "You girls don't take direction very well do you?"

Lynne smiled. "Yeah, you should have known that when we first got together."

Michelle placed a hand on Derek's back. He looked back at her with a small smile on his face. Without a second thought she threw her arms around him. "If you ever scare me like that again..." She whispered into his neck.

Derek slightly chuckled. "Sorry about your prom."

She pulled back, but stayed close to him. "I wanted a memorable prom, and this was definitely that."

Stiles sighed rubbing Taylor's back, when they pulled apart he bent down to pick his jacket up from the ground. He knew she must have been freezing. Smiling he wrapped it around her shoulders. "I kind of forgot to tell you something."

Taylor cocked her head to the side. "Oh boy. What is it?"

He leaned down to give her a brief kiss. "I love you too." He whispered when they pulled apart.

The rest of the group joined them. "Let's get back to the gym," Lynne sighed wrapping her arm around Scott's waist, his arm around her shoulders. "Maybe we can still have one dance."

Everyone nodded but Derek stopped. "Wait," He whispered holding his arm out. He had his eyes fixed on where Samuel lay.

They hesitantly start walking over to the fallen alpha but they stopped seeing Jackson beat them to it. "Get...me out of here." Samuel croaked to the beta.

Jackson scoffed, his eyes boring into the werewolf. With one swipe he cut Samuel's throat, just like Derek had done to Peter. "Jackson." Scott yelled.

Seeing the other pack Jackson smirked. "We will see you again." He chuckled walking into the woods, his remaining pack members following him. In a quick moment they had disappeared in the darkness.

"Should we go after them?" Scott asked his arm subconsciously tightening around Lynne.

"No," Derek growled, Michelle glancing up at him. "We wait and be prepared for when they come back. Tonight we won, let's leave it at that."

Scott and Stiles nodded still looking at the spot where Jackson was. The girls looked scared, just when they thought it was over something else begins. "Let's go back to the dance." Stiles muttered grabbing Taylor's hand.

They earned several stares as they walked through the double doors. Finally they were able to see their appearances, but no one cared. Taylor smiled at Stiles before walking to Michelle. "Come on, I have an idea."

Michelle had a confused look on her face but followed anyway. "What are you doing?"

"Just wait," Taylor laughed as they approached the D.J. He looked at the girls, wondering why their dresses were almost covered in mud, and their hair was frazzled. "Yeah, its been a night." Taylor sighed trying to tame her wild hair. "We have a request."

"All right, what is it?" He asked going through his song selection on his laptop.

Now Michelle understood what they were doing. "'Fool with Dreams," They both said.

"Gotcha." He smirked picking out the song. As the girls walked back to their dates the D.J started to speak through his microphone. "Ok, its time for the last dance. Grab your dates and enjoy."

Lynne watched as her friends came back with smiles on their faces. "What did y'all request?" She asked as Scott wrapped his arms around her.

"You'll see." Michelle smirked walking over to Derek. "You up for one more dance?"

Without a word Derek held out his hand to her which she happily took. The girls all smiled as the beginning of 'Fool with Dreams' by Framing Hanley began to play. "I should have guessed." Stiles laughed wrapping his arms around his girlfriend's waist.

Even if the rest of the night wasn't what they expected, this was the perfect moment the girls had hoped for all night. Nothing else seemed to matter, the fight with Samuel was a distant memory. All that they cared about was being with the ones they cared about.

The next day news reports of broken windows, damage to a few vehicles, and a torn up lacrosse field hit the papers. What surprised the group the most was that Samuel's body disappeared, when Derek had gone to the field that morning to investigate he saw no trace of the alpha. He searched the woods while Stiles and Taylor went to his house, no sign of him. Derek kept reassuring them that even if Samuel had managed to survive, somehow, he wouldn't be much danger. Not with the wounds he sustained. No sign of Jackson and the others either. Stiles said there was no missing person's report but he was sure by the end of the week there would be something out.

Taylor and Lynne had decided to run that Sunday with Michelle, one to get their minds off Samuel and the whole mess, and two Michelle had begged them to go with her. They were taking a break when they saw a moving truck driving down the road. "Huh," Lynne sighed sitting down on the sidewalk. "I wonder who's moving in."

"Could be someone moving out." Michelle pointed out stretching her arm muscles. "Ok, that's a long enough break, let's go." She said making her friends stand up.

Taylor and Lynne shook their heads as they continued their run through the suburbs. The moving truck came to a stop in front of a two story brick house. As the movers unloaded furniture from the back of the truck a Chevy Tahoe came to a stop in the driveway. In the backseat was a brunette girl who was happy to be back in the place she called home, even while her family was away. Allison opened her door stepping out with a smile on her face. She was finally back, and she was going to make sure everything went back to the way it was before she left.

**Its over! Aww so sad, but if y'all want we can continue with a sequel, but I'm gonna need some reviews, maybe some ideas what you would want to happen in the next story. Ok, hope you enjoyed this story :)**


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